
"« -v ■* * 






OF THE 



liJJiiiMtowaMiiitrwfi 



JUNE 9,1892 



WnAC' 



') 



N. h). 



is 



HISTORY 



PROCKKDINGS 



OF THE 



CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 
ANNIVERSARY OF THE INCORPORATION 
OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 



WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, 



HELD JUNE 9, 1892. 



There comes a voice that awakens my sSxal. (^. is the voice of years that 
are gone ; they roll before me with their 4«ed«vi-OssiAN. 



'm 



Si 



^^^riiT-^ 



t LIBI^AH^^ 




WINDHAM, N",«.: 

PUBLISHED BT THE EiECUliVE COMMITTEE. 



] ^^ 1 



\<K 3^1 



C 



f44- 



C0 % gesrmbants of tlje Jfirst Settlers, 

WHEREVER IN THE WIDE WORLD SCATTERED, 
S^ts recoth of a ttltbiation in ^onoi of t^t names, tl^e birtnes, anb i\t betbs of 

S^at gallant banb of ptoplt of Stottb bloob, fo^o fonnbeb tl^e tofains^ip of ®linb^am in 



C^is Volume is Jnsmkb, 

Ua *fe* (S«tntibe dominittet. 



LIST OF ILLUSTEATIO:^rS. 



The Windham Glee Club 






Faces page 33 


Gov. Hiram A. Tuttle 








(C ( 


40 


Hon. James Dinsmoor 








(( i 


45 


Hon. George Wilson 








a 1 


83 


Rev. William E. Westervelt . 








4< 


87 


William H. Anderson 








ii i 


88 


Hon, James W. Patterson 








a ( 


94 


Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury 








ii i 


96 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PREFATORY. 

PAGB 

Title-page i 

Dedication iii 

List of illustrations v 

Table of contents .......... vii 

Preface xi 

HISTORY. 

History 1 

Petition to the selectmen . 2 

Warrant for town-meeting . . . . . . . . 2, 3 

Action of the town, and committee appointed . . . . 2. 3 

Anniversary levees . 5-7 

Appointment of committees 7 

Selection of orator and poet, and letters to them . . . . 8, 9 

Proceedings of the annual town-meeting, March 8, 1892 . . 9, 10 

Different committees on the celebration . . . . 10, 11 

Selection of place for celebration . . . . . . . 11 

Committee's badge . . . . ' 12 

Report of the secretary 13, 14 

Publication of historical article in Boston Journal .... 14 

Col. J. E. Pecker's article in Boston Journal, May 17, 1892 . . 15-17 

The invitation 19 

The work expands . 20 

DiflBcult questions solved 21 

Work of committee on barges . 22 

Amount of funds collected for celebration 23 

The committee vote to have the proceedings compiled ... 23 

Vote of thanks to Hon. James Dinsmoor 23 

The committee vote to print the proceedings of the celebration . 24 

Estimation of cost 24 



Vlll 



Table of Contents. 



PROCEEDINGS, JUNE 9, 1892. 

PART I. 

The programme 

Dinner tickets ....... 

Haverhill (Mass.) band and list of members . 
Reception to Gov. Hiram A. Tiittle and IVIrs. Tuttle 
The marshal escorts visitors and speakers to the tent 



25-27 
27 

27, 28 
28 
29 



29 
29-76 



Forenoon exercises in the tent 

Exercises in the tent 

Introduction of the president of the day by the marshal, John H 

Dinsmoor, Esq. . 

Reading of the Scriptures by Rev. E. B. Blanchard 

The prayer, by Rev. Augustus Berry 

The Glee Club, and list of its members 

The song, " Give me your hand, old friend of youth " . 

The song, " Hurrah for old New England " . 

Address of welcome by the president ..... 

List of officers of the day, read by the secretary, Hiram S. Rev 

nolds, Esq. ......... 

Reading of the Petition for the Charter, with names of its signers 

by the town-clerk. John E. Cochran, Esq. 
Address of Gov. Hiram A. Tuttle ...... 

Introduction of Mrs. Sarah EUenwood, aged 100 years . 

Poem by Mrs. Margaret M. (Park) Dinsmoor 

Address of Hon. James Dinsmoor ...... 

Song, " Rock of Liberty," by the Glee Club .... 

The intermission and dinner . 

PART III. 

Aftemoou exercises in the tent • 76-104 

Address of Evarts Cutter, Esq 76-79 

Address of Rev. Samuel Mon-ison ....... 79-88 

Address of Hon. George Wilson 8-3, 84 

Address of William C. Harris, Esq 84-86 

The generous offer of Hon. George Wilson ..... 86 

Address of Rev. William E. Westervelt 87, 88 

Address of William H. Anderson, Esq 88-91 

Address of Rev. Warren R. Cochrane, D. D 91-98 

Address of Hon. James W. Patterson 94, 95 

Address of Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury 96-98 

Address of Hon. Frederic T. (ireenhalse .... 98-101 



20 
29-31 
31-38 

38 

33, 34 

34, 35 
3.^-87 

37, 38 

39, 40 
40-42 

42 
42-45 
45-73 

74 
74-76 



Table of Contents. 



IX 



Address of Hon. J. G. Crawford 

Motion to adjourn to June 9, 1942 . 

Closing words of the president and adjournment 

Poetical lines of Hon, Benjamin L. Baxter 

Prof. William S. Harris's article 



101, 102 
. 102 
. 103 

103, 104 
. 104 



LETTERS. 

The old parish of Aghadowey, county of Londonderry, L-eland 104, 105 

Letter of Kev. Gilbert A. Kennedy 106-108 

Letter from the mayor of Londonderry, Ireland .... 108 

Letter from John Carr, Esq 108 

Letter from Thomas Dinsmoor, Esq 109 

Letter from Prof. Jonathan L. Noyes 109, 110 

Letter from Orlando Davidson, Esq. . . . . . • 110 

Letter from Rev. John H. IMorison, D. I) 110 

Letter from Hon. Jacob H. Gallinger Ill 

Letter from Daniel M. Park, Esq Ill, 112 

Letter from Rev. Carroll Cutler, D. D 112 

Letter from President Harrison 112 

Letter from Hon. William E. Chandler 113 

Letter from Frank E. Park, Esq 113 

Letter from Rev. Joseph S. Cogswell 113 

Letter from George S. Morison, Esq. 114 

Letter from Hon. George A. Marden 114 

l^etter from D. Wallis Morrison, Esq 114, 115 

Poem by Mrs. Mary Whitney Morrison 115-117 

Letter from Rufus A. Morrison, Esq 117-119 

Letter from John Morrison, Esq. 119 

Letter from Albro A. Osgood, i^sq. 119,120 

Letter from ex-Gov. Charles H. Bell 120-122 

Letter from Charles H. Milner, Esq 123 

Letter from Samuel M. Nesmith, Esq 123, 124 



PKEFACE. 



On the day of the celebration, a court stenographer of large expe- 
rience and acknowledged ability was employed by the committee to take 
down the proceedings of the day. This he did, from the commencement 
of the public exercises to their close, with the exception of those addresses 
of w^hich he knew a manuscript copy had been furnished me. 

The regular method adopted by him in his record, the style, the form 
of address, and the exact language he used, have been adopted .by me in 
this printed book, with the exception of a few unavoidable changes. 

The addresses, as uttered or furnished in MS., are here given, together 
with the many addressed letters here printed ; and, in the main, they are 
in the exact form of address and language of the speaker or writer. 

I assume full responsibility for the preparation of the historical part 
of this book, and for the compilation. Whatever errors or inaccuracies 
may there appear belong to me. 

Of the addresses and letters which are in this book, if anything appears 
in form of sentiment or expression to excite the criticism of any one, the 
widely scattered, genial, and philosophical authors will, no doubt, bear 
the same with good-humored complacency. 

The long time which it has taken to secure engravings is the cause 
of the delay in the appearance of this volume. They who have inserted 
their engravings have the thanks of the committee. 

L. A. M. 

Windham, N. H., 

November 8, 1892. 



HISTORY. 



Since the first settlement of Windham one hundred and seventy- 
two years have passed away. Its founders have fallen asleep with 
their children and grandchildren, while those who remain in town of 
the fourth and fifth generations from their immigrating ancestors are 
the active men to-day. The memory of the olden time has been kept 
green. In many homes cherished mementoes of the past, of gener- 
ations passed away, and of old homes beyond the sea, have been hand- 
ed down from generation to generation. The lamp of political and 
religious faith has not been suffered to grow dim, nor devotion to 
sacred trusts to die. 

The living descendants, in honor of their deceased progenitors, the 
founders and incorporators of the town, proposed to celebrate the 
150th anniversary of its incorporation. For more than ten years 
many of the people of Windham were watching and waiting for the 
eventful day and hour to come. As the anniversary drew near, they 
proposed to observe it with some attention, even in mid-winter, and 
with a more fitting celebration in the warm, glowing weather of June. 
It was deemed proper that the town, in its legal capacity, should take 
formal action for the proper notice and observance of the day. A 
petition to the selectmen for a special meeting of the town was pre- 
pared, of which the following is a copy, with the names of the signers. 
Others would gladly have signified their approval by appending their 
names to the document had it been necessary, but enough signa- 
tiu'es were obtained to answer the legal purpose, and to abundantly 
show the general appreciation of the object and purpose of the cele- 
bration. 

As it was an expressed desire by some that full details should be 
given of the proceedings of the committee, with quotations from the 
report of the secretary, I have made a full report of the proceedings 
and free quotations from the secretary's report, for the interest of the 
present generation in this town, and for the benefit of future ones. 



2 Warrant for Town 3Ieeting, Jan. 23, 1892. 

To the Selectmen of Windham, N". H. : 

Gentlemen : — We, the undersigned, legal voters in said town, request 
you, at your earliest convenience, to call a meeting of the town, and 
insert in your warrant the following articles : 

Article 1. To see if the town will vote to celebrate with appropriate 
exercises the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town. 

Art. 2. To choose such committees as may be thought necessary to 
carry the above vote into effect. 

Art. 3. To decide on the manner of raising monej' to meet the ex- 
penses of the celebration. 

Art. 4. To transact any other business relating to the celebration that 
may be deemed expedient. 

Windham, N. II., Dec. 21, 1891. 



William C. Harris, 
Isaac P. Cochran, 
John E. Cochran, 
Horace Anderson, 
Patsey Mahoney, 
George W. Johnson, 
Horace P. Dinsmoor, 
William 1). Cochran, 
Joseph W. Dinsmoor, 
Chas. A. Reed, 

per L. A. M, 
George F. Armstrong, 
Charles J. Miers, 
George E. Seavey, 



James AI. Crowell, 
Samuel L. Prescott, 
David C. Foss, 
Dalton J. Warren, 



Abel Dow, 
George P. Dow, 
Albert A. Morrison, 
Henry ,T. Richardson, 
John W. I\I. W^orledge, Horace Berry, 
Charles II. Barker, Henry T. Wheeler, 

Benjamin E.Blanchard, Eugene AV. Armstrong, 



Joseph P. Crowell, 
James Cochran, 
John G. Bradford, 
John II. Dinsmore, 
Leonard A. jNIorrison, 
Jos. \V. Dinsmoor, Jr., 
Albert O. Alexander. 



Caleb B. Clark, 
William H. Armstrong, 
David C. Anderson, 
John A. Park, 
William A. Thorn, 
Frank A. Crowell, 

per E. B. 



A true copy of petition. Attest : John E. Cochran, Town Clerk 
A true copy of record. Attest : John E. Cochran, Town Clerk. 

The vrarrant issued was as follows : 



r T The State of New Hampshire. 

[l. s.] 

To the inhabitants of the town of Windham qualified to vote in town affairs: 

Pursuant to an application to us of this date by ten or more voters of 
said town, you are notified to appear at the lower town hall in said town 
on Saturday, the 2;5d day of January, inst., at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 
to act upon the following subjects : 

First, To choose a moderator to preside in said meeting. 

Second, To see if the town will vote to celebrate with appropriate ex- 
ercises the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town. 

Third, To choose such committees as may be thought necessary to 
carry the above vote into effect. 



Action of the Totvn. 3 

Fourth, To decide on the manner of raising money to meet the ex- 
penses of the celebration. 

Fifth, To transact any other business relating to the celebration that 
may be deemed expedient. 

Given under our hands and seal, this 9th day of January, 1892. 

Albp:rt E. Simpson, 
John A. McVoy, 
Augustus L. Barker, 

Selectmen of Windham. 

Windham, January 23, 1892. 
We do hereby certify that on the 9th day of January last we posted 
and attested a copy of the within warrant at the place of meeting within 
specified, and a like copy at the store of John G. Bradford, a public 
place in said town. 

A. E. Simpson, 
J. A. McVoY, 
A. L. Barker, 
Selectmen of Windham. 

A true copy of the warrant and the return thereof. 

Attest : John E. Cochran, Town Clerk. 



At a meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Windham on the 
23d day of January, 1892, at the lower town hall in said town, at 1 
o'clock in the afternoon, William D. Cochran was elected moderator. 
It was then unanimously voted to celebrate the 150th anniversary, 
and to choose a committee of two from each former school district, the 
following gentlemen being chosen : 



No.l. 



William D. Coclu'an, 
Leonard A. Morrison. 
Albert E. Simpson, 
John W. M. Worledge. 
Horace Berry, 
George E. Seavey. 
No. 4. Hiram S. Reynolds, 

Alphonso F. Campbell. 



No. 2. 



No. 3. 



No. 5. Augustus L. Barker, 
Joseph P. Crowell. 

No. 6. William C. Harris, 
James Cochran. 

No. 7. Charles H. Davis, 
Horace B. Johnson. 



It was voted to leave the manner of raising funds in the hands of 
the committee, and they were authorized to fill all vacancies occurring 
in their number. The town also voted that the celebration should 
take place in the month of June, 1892, and that the date should be 
left with the committee. 



4 Names of Committees Clioseii. 

On January 29th this committee met at the lower town hall, com- 
pleted its organization, and considered the matter of raising funds to 
defray the expenses of the celebration. Leonard A. Morrison was 
chosen president ; Hiram S. Reynolds, secretary ; Albert E. Simpson, 
treasurer ; and William D. Cochran secretary j9ro tern. 

It was voted to have a tri-semi-centennial festival on the evening of 
February 12, 1892, with a " C Supper," the tables to be furnished with 
articles of food commencing with the letter C. John H. Dinsmore 
was chosen president for the evening, John A. McVoy to seU tickets, 
John L. Bradford to collect them, John H. Cochran to care for the 
clothes, and John W. M. Worledge, William C Harris, William D. 
Cochran, to procui'e posters and provide entertainment for the even- 
ing. The admission for adults, including supper, was fixed at forty 
cents ; children under twelve years, twenty cents. 

The following announcement of the celebrating festival was sent 
out by the committee : 



ANNIVERSARY 




TCWN HALL, WINDHAM, N. H. 

FRIDAY EVENiO, FEB. 12. 1892 

By the citizens of Windham, for the purpose of raising money to 
aid in Celebrating, in June next, the One Hundred and Fif- 
tieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of' the Town. 



ENTERTAINMENT BY 



CABLE. Comedian 



or BOSTON 



Ice Cream. Confectionery, and Flowers will be for Sale 

THERE WILL BE A GUESS CAKE. SPIDERS WEB. AND MANY OTHER ATTRACTIONS, 



C SUPPER BBLL OF FARE 

CLAM CHOWDER CHICKEN ^„^.„ „,- 

CRANBERRY PIE" CURRANT PIE CHICKEN PIE CUSTARD PIE CREAM PIE 

CRACKER PUDDING CHOCOLATE PUDDING 

CAKE COOKIES CHEESE CRABAPPLE TARTS CRANBERRY TARTS CURRANT TARTS 

COFFEE CHINESE TEA 



ADIMISSIOEM, including supper, 40 CENTS. 

CHILDREN, under twelve years of age, 20 CENTS. 



It very stormy the Levee will be tlie first fair evening of the next week 
Windham. N. H.. Feb. 3. 1892. ssr-.r 



The Festival of February 12, 1892. 7 

The people of the town engaged with enthusiasm in the work of 
preparation, and the prospect for a brilliant success was never better. 
The daily papers announced " Much Disturbance on the Surface of 
the Sun," accompanied with dark spots of large size ; which some 
journals insisted on proclaiming presaged heavy storms on this planet. 
Be that as it may, the storm came, and a severe one, on the day and 
night of February 11th. The wind blew with great violence, the snow 
fell rapidly, and before the dawn of the morning of February 12th a 
foot and a half of snow covered the ground. The evening was one of 
the finest. The moon was at its full ; the air was cool, crisp, and still, 
and not a cloud dimmed the azure vault above. A goodly company 
assembled in the town hall, and the evening passed away enjoyably, 
not the least of the attractions being the five handsomely laden tables 
in the lower hall. The supper was excellent, and was duly appreci- 
ated by the guests. A supplementary supper and entertainment were 
held in the same place on Monday evening, February 15th, and the 
proceeds from both entertainments, above expenses, were $115. 

At a meeting of the town committee, who adopted the name of the 
" Executive Committee," holden at the town hall, February 13, 1892, 
several committees were chosen. 

On motion of William C. Harris, a Committee on Finance were 
chosen, as follows : Albert E. Simpson, Joseph P. Crowell, William 
C. Harris. 

On motion of Horace Berry, a committee of three were chosen to 
select an orator, and to arrange an order of literary exercises for the 
celebration. The committee were Leonard A. Morrison, William D. 
Cochran, William C. Harris. 

On motion of Mr. Berry, an Investigating Committee were chosen 
to consult and see what would be an appropriate order of general 
exercises for the day of the celebration ; to name the different com- 
mittees necessary to be appointed by the Executive Committee ; and 
to suggest a list of persons for these committees ; the Investigating 
Committee to report their doings within two weeks to the Executive 
Committee for their action upon the same. The Investigating Com- 
mittee were Leonard A. Morrison, Horace Berry, and James Cochran. 
The committee to select an orator met and voted unanimously to 
extend the invitation to an honored son of Windham, Hon. James 
Dinsmoor of Sterling, 111. 

The foUowinw letter was sent to him : 



8 Letter of Hon. James Dinsmoo)'. 

Windham, New Hampshire (Canobie Lake, N. H., P. O.) 
February 15, 1892. 
Hon. James Dinsmoor, 

Sterling, Illinois : 
My Dear Sir : — At a special meeting of this town, holden January 
23, 1892, it was unanimously voted to celebrate the 150th anniversary of 
the incorporation of the town. The incorporating act was passed on 
February 12, 1742 ; the celebration will be holden in the early part of 
June, 1892, when the weather is usually agreeable and pleasant. An 
Executive Committee were chosen to make arrangements, and to carry 
the vote of the town into effect. 

It is proposed to render a tribute of honor, slight though it may be in 
comparison with their merits, to those Scotch people of heroic mould, 
who for opinion's sake fled from the mountains and valleys of Scotland 
to Ireland, and who themselves or their descendants, a little later, came 
to New Hampshire and founded this settlement. It was considered by 
the committee especially appropriate that at the celebration the histori- 
cal address should be delivered by one of their descendants, a son of 
Windham, and they have unanimously selected you as the orator who 
could very fittingly make that address. It gives me pleasure, in their 
name, as well as individually, to give you a most cordial and urgent invi- 
tation to again visit your own early home, — the home, too, of your fathers 
for four generations, — and to address your former fellow-citizens and 
friends, and those who will be present on that memorable occasion. 
Hoping that nothing will prevent you from accepting this invitation, 
I remain. 

Sincerely yours, 

Leonard A. Morrison, 
For the Committee on Literary Exercises. 

This letter of invitation brought forth the following letter of accept- 
ance : 

Sterling, III., March 15, 1892. 
Hon. L. a. Morrison, 

Windham, N. H.: 
My Dear Sir : — The request of the Committee of Arrangements for 
the proposed celebration of the 150th anniversary of the organization of 
our native town, to have me prepare an address for that occasion, has 
given me much pleasure, and at the same time not a little perplexity, — 
pleasure that while so many of the natives of that good old town have 
been called to active life remote from the home of our childhood, there 
yet remain within her borders sons who appreciate the physical and 
mental vigor and moral worth of the fathers of 150 years ago : peri^lex- 
ity that my present engagements and health will not permit me to make 
such preparation as may justify their selection. The latter has caused 



Historical Town Meeting, March 5, 1892. 9 

my delay in thanking the committee for the invitation, and expressing 
the hope that I may be able to contiibute my mite to the meed of praise 
of our fathers of 1742. 

Be so kind as to extend to the several members of the committee my 
kindest regards. Hoping this may find you in good health, I am 
Affectionately yours, 

Jas. Dinsmoor. 

The Committee on Literary Exercises selected Mrs. Margaret M. 
(Park) Dinsmoor as the poet for the celebration, and the following 
invitation was given : 

Windham, N. H., February 18, 1892. 
My Dear Mrs. Dinsmoor : 

There will be a celebration in June next in commemoration of the 
150th anniversary of the act of incorporation of this town. The Com- 
mittee on Literary Exercises, Leonard A. Morrison, William D. Cochran, 
and William C. Harris, have unanimously selected you as the poet, and 
desire, and now invite you to furnish a poem for that historic day. 
Hoping that nothing will prevent you from so doing, I am. 
Sincerely yours, 

Leonard A. Morrison, 

For the Committee. 
To Mrs. Margaret M. (Park) Dinsmoor, 
Avondale Farm, Windhaiii, N. H. 

Mrs. Dinsmoor accepted the invitation. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL TOWN MEETING HELD 
MARCH 8, 1892. 

At a legal town meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Wind- 
ham, on the 8th day of March, 1892, at the lower hall in the town 
house, in said town, at 10 of the clock in the forenoon, the meeting 
was called to order by William D. Cochran, chairman of the Board 
of Supervisors. 

Leonard A. Morrison was elected moderator. 

Prayer was offered by Rev. William E. Westervelt. 

The moderator called William D. Cochran, chairman of the Board 
of Supervisors, to the chair, and introduced the following resolution : 

Resolved, That we, the people of Windham, in town meeting assembled, 
on this, the 150th anniversary of the day and the hour when the founders 
of this town met in their first annual town meeting, under the act of 
incorporation, revere and honor those who established this township ; 



10 The Bay to Celebrate Selected. 

that we hold their names and recorded acts in veneration, and would have 
them kept in perpetual remembrance. 

Looking backward 150 years, we behold the fathers in their town 
meeting and tender them honor; looking into the future 150 years, we 
salute our successors of a remote generation. 

When they shall gather in their annual town meeting in March, 2042, 
we commend to them the familiar names, the manly acts, the heroic vir- 
tues, of the founders of this town, that they may honor and emulate 
them, and in their turn commend to their successors of 150 years later 
the names of those whom we honor by this resolve, that their memory 
may not perish from among men. 

He made some remarks in favor of the resolution, moved its 
adoption and that it be recorded with the records of the town. 
This motion was seconded in appropriate words by Horace Berry, and 
the town voted to adopt and record the resolution. 

It was a singular coincidence that William D. Cochran, who called 
this meeting to order, was a lineal descendant of Robert Dinsmoor, 
chairman of the Board of Commissioners to call the first town meet- 
ing, and who undoubtedly called that meeting to order on March 8, 
1742, just 150 years before, to the very day and hour ; and that 
Lieutenant Samuel Morison, who was elected the first moderator in 
1742, was the great grandfather of the person chosen in 1892. 

On March 12th, the Conamittee of Arrangements met and decided 
to have the celebration at the center of the town on June 9th. Va- 
rious committees were chosen, as follows : 

ON INVITATIONS. 

WiUiam C. Harris, 
Leonard A. Morrison, 
William D. Cochi'an, 
Alphonso F. Campbell. 

ON DECORATIONS. 

Horace Berry, 
John W. M. Worledge, 
Horace P. Dinsmoor, 
Charles H. Davis. 

It was decided to have a brief synopsis of the history of the town 
and the proposed celebration prepared and printed in a leading 
paper, and to send the same to natives, former residents, and friends 
of the town. A Committee on Newspapers were chosen, consisting 
of Albert E. Simpson, William C. Harris, and Alphonso F. Campbell. 



A Place Selected. li- 

ON SINGING. 



^•'''•ft^ 



Benjamin Edwin Blanchard, //J' . .y* 

Hiram S. Reynolds, /'^.^ ^ *^^\; 

Albert A. Morrison. 



ON BAND. 

Edwin 0. Dinsmoor, 

Horace Anderson, *-7 

Jacob A. Nesmith. 



a: 



It was voted that the Committee on Reception should consist of 
the Executive Committee and their ladies, with Benjamin E. Blan- 
chard and Albert A. Morrison. 

On motion of William D. Cochran, it was voted that Leonard A. 
Morrison and William C Harris should constitute a committee to 
prepare a list of names which, when approved by the Executive Com- 
mittee, should, on the day of celebration, be the Honorary Committee. 
This closed the proceedings of that day. 

Thus the good work went on and the hopes of the committee began 
to materialize. 

The question of the selection of a proper place for holding the cele- 
bration had been an important one. Mr. Abel Dow, the manager and 
proprietor of the Granite State Grove, Canobie Lake, near the rail- 
road station at that place, had generously offered to the committee 
his spacious and beautiful grounds, and buHdings with the exception 
of the skating rink, as a place to hold the celebration, if they desired. 
After due consideration, on March 12th, it was decided to hold the 
celebration at the center of the town, and the committee at their meet- 
ing on April 7th, on motion of Horace Berry, passed the following 
resolution : 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee extend to Mr. Abel Dow their 
heartfelt thanks for his kindness and generosity in offering his grove for 
the coming celebration of the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of 
Windham. 

The secretary was authorized to notify Mr. Dow of said vote. 

At the meeting April 7th, thi-ee persons were chosen a committee 

ON COLLATION. 

WUliam D. Cochran, 
Albert E. Simpson, 
George E. Seavey. 



12 



A Free Collation. 




1 damm itt^«^ 
0£ 



rratt|uments. 




in old English letters. 

It was voted, on motion of W. C. Harris, that 
should not exceed one hundred dollars, and that 
ham Center at 8:30 a. m. and remain till 5:30 p. 



It was voted, 
on motion of WU- 
jliam C. Harris, to 
have a free dinner 
at the celebration, 
and the meeting 
adjourned to April 
23d. 

Met accoi'ding 
to adjournment, 
when it was voted 
that Leonard A. 
Morrison be a 
committee to pro- 
cure thirty-six 
badges for the Ex- 
ecutive Comm i t - 
tee. These he 
subsequently pro- 
cured, at a cost of 
twenty cents each. 
They were of the 
following descrip- 
tion : Made of 
white satin, four 
inches in length 
and two inches in 
breadth, attached 
to a glittering pin, 
wliich looked like 
gold^ but perhaps 
was not of that 
metal, and with 
gilt fringe. The 
satin was marked, 
" Commit tee of 
Arrange m e n t s ," 



the expense of a band 
it should be at Wind- 
m. After the transac- 



Report of the Secretary. 13 

tiou of other business, the meeting adjourned, subject to the call of 
the president. 

The committee again met, on May 4th. The Haverhill, Mass., 
City band had been secured, at an expense of one hundred dollars. 

It having been decided to secure a large tent, the spot on which to 
pitch it caused the committee a good deal of anxiety, as the grounds 
in front of the town house were not of sufficient extent. After sev- 
eral places had been examined, it was finally voted to put it in the 
field of James Cochran, on the west of his house, and with the under- 
standing that there the tables should be set the day before the celebra- 
tion, as that would relieve the ladies of care and labor on the celebra- 
ting day ; and that the seating capacity at the tables should be for 
1,000 i^ersons. At this meeting William D. Cochran, chairman of 
the Committee on Collation, gave a valuable report in relation to the 
sort of tents and the expense and general method of providing and 
supplying the great congregation with a free dinner. It was decided, 
according to the report of the secretary, to have the speaking " some- 
where around the town house." 

It was moved by Albert E. Simpson that the schools of the town, 
with their teachers, be invited to meet at the schoolhouse in No. 6, 
on the day of celebration, the whole to be under the direction of the 
school board, and that they be escorted in the order in which the sev- 
eral districts come, by the band, to the town hall, and that they have 
a separate table for dinner. It was so voted. 

The following is an original, racy, and quaint report from the sec- 
retary's record : " The question of posters, how they shall be worded, 
came up, and was discussed at some length. [This included the gen- 
eral one of invitations.] The question of invitations came up, and 
was discussed by different gentlemen. It was thought that 1,000 
ought to be sent out, and that, in all probability, not more than one- 
half would respond. L. A. Morrison gave liis ideas (as he has on 
several different occasions), in plain and outspoken language. He 
thinks the invitation should include any one who has any inclination 
to come : he would invite the whole of creation — and have dinner 
tickets (at a fixed price), and any person or persons who wanted din- 
ner should notify the committee accordingly, and secure them. 

" Another grave and important matter has just come up, and that 
is, whether the committee are willing to release Mr. William D. Coch- 
ran (one of the important persons on the Executive Committee, and 
chairman of the Committee on Collation) to go on a trip to Portland, 
Oregon, to be gone most of the time between now and the coming 



14 Report of the Secretary. 

celebration. Most of the committee are willing, but A. E. Simpson 
(also on Committee on Collation) is inclined to object, on the ground 
that W. D. Cochran is the hub of the wheel, as well as the spoke, and 
says, further, that if W. D. C. does go, he (Simpson) wants to feed 
the crowd in a different manner (the way subsequently adopted), that 
is, without setting tables. W. D. Cochran objects to that way, on the 
ground that it would be very much more work ; his idea is to relieve 
the ladies on celebration day from being obliged to work hard all day; 
they could mingle with the crowd, see their friends, and be relieved 
from very much care, etc., etc. So the matter is left undecided. The 
meeting adjourned sine die at 6:45 p. m. H. S. Reynolds, 

Secretary. 

At this same meeting, Albert E. Simpson, chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Newspapers, reported that he had made arrangements with 
the Boston Journal to supply 800 copies of the Journal at three 
cents each, to be sent to different parties, on being furnished a list of 
names by the committee. The following article in relation to the cel- 
ebration was prepared by Col. J. E. Pecker, of Concord, correspon- 
dent of the Journal^ who visited Windham, took items from the com- 
mittee, and prepared the article from those facts and from other in- 
formation found in the " History of Windham in New Hampshire." 
Leonard A. Morrison prepared a list of 600 names, which was sup- 
plied to the Journal office, and this article, published in the Morn- 
ing Journal, May 17, 1892, was mailed direct from that ofl&ce 
to the parties named in that list. The other 200 copies came to 
Windham, and were mailed to different persons and divided among 
the members of the committee, for distribution among the people of 
the town. 



Col. J. E. Pecker's Article. 15 

WINDHAM, N. H. 

Its 150th Anniversary to he Celebrated — Arrancjements for a Orand Re- 
union of Former Residents — Notes on the History of a Town Which 
Has no Mean Record. 

[Special Dispatch to The Boston Journal.] 

Windham, N. H., May 16. — The citizens of Windham will celebrate 
the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town on June 9th, and 
the proposed festivities are akeady the eager topic of discussion among 
all classes in this community. The various committees are hard at work, 
and they are promised so generous a measure of hearty co-operation from 
the citizens that it is safe even now to predict that the reunion will be a 
grand success. The first movement toward this celebration was the draft- 
ing of a petition directed to the selectmen by William C. Harris en- 
dorsed by others, which was largely signed by the voters of the town 
The petition called for a special meeting to be held for the purpose of 
taking action in the matter. The meeting was held on January 23d, and 
there was a good attendance. It was unanimously and enthusiastically 
voted to hold the celebration on the date already named. A Committee 
of Arrangements, to have entire charge of the proceedings, was chosen, 
consisting of two from each of the old school districts. This committee 
was composed of the following gentlemen : William D. Cochran, Hon. 
Leonard A. Morrison, A. M., Albert E. Simpson, John W. M. Worledge, 
Horace Berry, George E. Seavey, Hiram S. Reynolds, Alphonso F. Camp- 
bell, Augustus L. Barker, Joseph P. Crowell, William C. Harris, James 
Cochran, Charles H. Davis, and Horace B. Johnson. The committee or- 
ganized by choosing Hon. Leonard A. Morrison, A. M., of Canobie Lake, 
chairman, and President of the Day, and Hiram S. Reynolds, of West 
Windham, secretary. A Committee on Finance was selected, with Al- 
bert E. Simpson, of Windham, chairman. Various sub-committees were 
■chosen on the subjects of literary exercises, including the selection of an 
orator, invitations, collation, decorations, music, and reception. The 
town was not asked to appropriate money, as it was desired to meet all 
expenses with voluntary contributions, which are coming in very gener- 
ally from citizens, former residents, and descendants of early settlers. As 
the exact date of the 150th anniversary was on February 12th, a public 
festival was held on the evening of that day in the town hall, to com- 
memorate that event, it being understood that the formal celebration 
should occur in the summer, the date of which was subsequently fixed 
as already given. 

The general committee voted to hold the exercises at the center of the 
town. Under this arrangement, visitors from abroad are expected to 
debark from the cars at Windham Junction, where barges will be in 
attendance to convey them to the center village, a distance of two and a 
half miles. The Committee on Literary Exercises unanimously voted 



16 Col. J. E. Pecker s Article Continued. 

to invite Hon. James Dinsmoor, a lawyer of Stei-ling, Illinois, to deliver 
the historical address, which invitation has been accepted. Mr. Dins- 
moor is a native of Windham, a graduate of Dartmouth College, and a 
jurist of high character and reputation. He has always taken a great 
interest in his native town, making frequent visits to it, and the fact of 
his acceptance of the invitation to deliver the oration has caused great 
satisfaction to the entire population of Windham. Mrs. M. M. P. Dins- 
moor, of Windham, will read an original poem. Among other speakers 
expected from abroad are Rev. W. R. Cochrane, D. D., of Antrim, Rev. 
Samuel Morrison, of Charlton, Mass., and Rev. C. M. Dinsmoor, of Exe- 
ter. The exercises will commence at 10 a. m., and the remainder of the 
forenoon will be devoted mainly to listening to the historical address. 
Dinner will be served at 1 p. m., followed by toasts and speeches. Fine 
instrumental and vocal music will be furnished. It is expected that a 
large tent will be pitched near the hall for dming purposes. All bells in 
the town will be rung at sunrise, and there will be extensive decorations. 
Governor and Mrs. Tuttle will be among the invited guests. Rev. Gil- 
bert A. Kennedy, of tiie Presbyterian church in the parish of Aghadowey, 
county of Londonderry, province of Ulster, Ireland, of which church 
some of the first settlers of that portion of Londonderry, now Windham, 
were members, has been sent a most cordial letter of invitation. 

Windham was originally settled by people of Scotch blood, some 
direct from Scotland, but most of them from Scotch settlements in 
the North of Ireland. The territory now comprising Windham was 
from 1719 to February 12, 1742, a portion of Londonderry. The first 
sixteen settlers of Londonderry, with their wives and families, were 
James McKeen, John Barnet, Archibald Clendennin, John Mitchell, 
James Starrett, James Anderson, Randall Alexander, James Gregg, 
James Clark, James Nesmith, Allen Anderson, Robert Weir, John Mor- 
ison, Samuel Allison, Thomas Steele, and John Stuart. Of these sixteen, 
McKeen, Anderson, Alexander, Clark, Nesmith, and Stuart were each the 
ancestor of the Windham families which bear their respective surnames. 
The homes in Ireland of the McKeens, Dinsmoors, McGregors, and Nes- 
miths, and many other families which settled in Windham and London- 
derry, were in the valley of the river Bann, in or near the parishes or 
towns of Kilrea, Coleraine, Ballywatick, Ballymoney, and Ballynoolen. 
In September, 1719, five months after the first settlement, there were 
seventy families, and in October there were 105. There is no account of 
any Indian outrage to an inhabitant of Windham or Londonderry, save 
that of the boy who was killed on Golden Brook about 1721. 

The first grant of land in Windham was one of 500 acres, ordered by the 
Legislature of Massachusetts, to Rev. Thos. Cobbett, of Ipswich, that state. 
It was surveyed and laid out in October, 1662, by Joseph Davis, Jere- 
miah Belcher, and Simon Tuttle. This was approved by the General 
Court at Boston, May 27, 1663. The bounds were renewed May 2, 1728, 
by Jonathan Foster, John Jacques, Thomas Gage, and David Haseltine. 



JEmigration to Coleraine^ Mass. IT 

This farm was laid out in 1662, or fifty-seven years before the Scotch 
made a settlement in Londonderry, of which Windham was a part. Un- 
doubtedly Londonderry had been traversed again and again by exploring 
and hunting expeditions, before and after 1662 ; still, it is doubtful if any 
permanent settlements were made till the advent of the Scotch in 1719. 
The first settlement in Windham was southeast of Cobbett's Pond, near 
the cemetery, on the highest elevation of Copps' Hill. There the first 
house stood, and the first occupant was John Waddell, and this was not 
far from 1720. In 1740 an emigration of some fourteen families took 
place from Windham and Londonderry, to Coleraine, Mass., among them 
being Morrisons and Stuarts. 

The petition to Governor Benning Wentworth, praying for the erec- 
tion of a new parish, though not dated, was drawn in 1740, and was 
signed by Thomas Morison and forty-eight others. In that year Eze- 
kiel Morison, one of the petitioners, died. Those who signed the in- 
strument asked that a tract of land near six miles in length and four in 
breadth, lying on the south side, at the easterly end of said town of Lon- 
donderry, be made into a new parish. The reasons for presenting the 
petition were narrated to be considerable difficulty, unknown to others 
not in their circumstances, more especially with respect to their attend- 
ance on public worship. It was stated that the greater part of the peti- 
tioners, or rather all of them except three, were living upwards of seven 
miles from either of the meeting houses in said town, the inconveniences 
of which were self-evident. From this it will be seen that the early set- 
tlers of Londonderry were church-going people, those asking for the new 
town of Windham making their strongest claim on the ground of living 
at an inconvenient distance from the earliest houses of worship in the 
settlement. 

The charter for Windham was granted January 21, 1741, and " An Act 
for incorporating a new parish in the township of Londonderry in the 
Province of New Hampshire," was passed by the General Com't Febru- 
ary 12, 1742. It was also enacted that Robert Dinsmoor, Joseph Waugh, 
and Robert Thomson be hereby authorized and appointed to call the 
first meeting of the inhabitants of the said parish on the 8th day of March 
following. The charter was granted on the condition that the inhabit- 
ants of the said parish should from time to time provide, maintain, and 
support an orthodox minister of the gospel among them. The charter 
was signed by Andrew Wiggin, Speaker ; Richard Waldron, Secretary of 
the Council Board, and B. Wentworth, Governor, and a copy was at- 
tested by Samuel Campbell, town clerk. The sun which rose on the 
morning of February 12, 1742, ushered in a new and brighter day to 
those hardy settlers who on that date became the inhabitants of the new 
town of Windham. 

The first town meeting was held according to the provisions of the 
charter, and on March 8, 1742, the initial measures were taken that laid 
the foundations for the new town of Windham, upon whose people the 



18 Noted Men. 

sun of prosperity has ever shone. It is unnecessary to mention in detail 
the more prominent events in the record of the town, for they can all be 
gleaned from its excellent history that was the fruit of years of assidu- 
ous labor on the part of the widely-known author and genealogist, Hon. 
Leonard A. Morrison, A. M., and who published the same in 1883. It 
may be stated, however, that Windham has always been distinguished for 
the enterprise, intelligence, patriotism, and religious culture of its inhab- 
itants. Education has ever been fostered with care and faithfulness, 
churches have been well supported, and her children have always been 
taught loyalty to the state and nation. In all the wars in which the 
United States has been engaged, Windham's sons have always done their 
part, especially in the War of the Rebellion, to defend the flag of their 
country, Windham's first library was established in 1800, which was 
followed by numerous others from time to time, including the Nesmith 
Free Public Library, which was established in 1871, the donor being 
Col. Thomas Nesmith, of Lowell. The natural scenery of Windham is 
noted for its varied beauty. The diversity of the landscape is such that 
the eye never tires in beholding its grand old hills, valleys, lakes, and 
streams of water. 

Among natives, or descendants of the earliest settlers, now residing 
beyond the limits of the town, who have helped to give character and 
reputation to Windham, may be named ex-Gov. Charles H. Bell, of Ex- 
eter, the two ex-(iovs. Dinsmoor, of Keene, Hon. Wm. H. Anderson, a 
lawyer of Lowell, George W. Armstrong, of Boston, Hon. Charles H. 
Campbell, of Nashua, John Campbell, of Henniker, James M. Campbell, 
of Manchester, Judge George C. Clyde, of Columbia county, N. Y., 
Milton A. Clyde, of Springfield, Mass., Hon. James Dinsmoor, of Illin- 
ois, Hon. Silas Dinsmoor, of Alabama, Hon. James Dinsmore, of Ken- 
tucky, WOliam B. Dinsmore, late president of the Adams Express Com- 
pany, of New York city, Nathaniel Hills, of Ipswich, Mass., Hon. John 
C. Park, of Boston, Hon. Aaron P. Hughes, of Nashua, Hon. Alva Mor- 
rison, of Braintree, Mass., Prof. James Morrison, M. D., of Quincy, 
Mass., Hon. John Nesmith, of Lowell, Mass., and Prof. J. L. Noyes, of 
Faribault, Minnesota. 

The work of the committee went rapidly forward. Tlie several 
committees were attending closely to their different lines of labor and 
worked together hai-moniously and well. Leonard A. Morrison, for 
the Committee on Invitations, had printed, on May 11th, 1,100 copies 
of the following invitation, and on May 12th about 600 single copies 
were folded and addressed at the American office, in Lawrence, Mass., 
and mailed at Windham to the persons named in a list which had been 
prepared. Most of the remaining copies were sent by different mem- 
bers of the Executive Committee to parties in different sections of 



The Invitation. 19 

the country. The responses to this invitation were enthusiastic and 
numerous. 

—1892.— 

Windham, New Hampshire. 

Settled, 1720. Incorporated, 1742. 

The Citizens of Windham 

will celebrate the 

150th Anniversary of its Incorporation, 

June 9th, 1892. 

Exercises 

To Commence at 10 o'clock A. M. 

at 

The Town Hall. 

" Give me your hand. Old Friend of Youth." 

Historical Address by 

Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

It is proposed to make this the most interesting celebration ever 
held in the Town. Tents will be erected and everything done to 
make the occasion worthy of those in whose honor we celebrate. 

Descendants of the early settlers, wherever located, natives, and 
former residents, are cordially invited to return to the old home, and 
with the citizens of Windham participate in the festivities of' the day. 

Your presence is requested. 

Please notify the Committee of your acceptance. 

William C Harris, 
Leonard A. Morrison, 
William D. Cochran, 
Alphonso F. Campbell, 

Committee on Invitations. 

N. B. — Visitors from abroad, and guests of the Town, will leave 
trains at Windham Junction, from which barges will be run, and 
which can convey them to the Town House. Guests of the Town will 
be received by the Committee of Arrangements in the Upper Hall. 

Barges will run during the day between the Town House and the 
Station, connecting with aU trains. Particulars will be given in the 
Programmes. 



20 The Work Expands. 

The next meeting of the committee was on May 28th, and matters 
of much importance came up, were fully discussed, and decided. The 
celebration had grown on the hands of the committee. It had be- 
come advertised in all the surrounding country. The occasion was in 
itself a very fascinating one, and one which always draws a multitude. 
Ten thousand peojjle had gathered in 1869 at the Londonderry cele- 
bration. It was prophesied by some who had participated in the man- 
agement of that affair, that this one would draw five thousand people, 
if it was a pleasant day. Others asserted that three thousand people 
would be present. But it was an uncertain quantity, though " it was 
in the air " that a large number would be in Windham, if the weather 
was fine. They would flock to Windham as men flock to a banquet, 
or as doves to their windows. They would 

" Come as the winds come, when 
Forests are rended ; 
Come as the waves come, when 
Navies are stranded." 

And the people of Windham wanted them to come, but they wished 
also to provide for them in an acceptable manner. Such was the sit- 
uation of the committee. They were making preparations for 1,000 
people, and 5,000 might be present. 

William C. Harris discussed the subject at length. His solution of 
the problem was, that the distinguished guests, speakers, etc., should 
be entertained at tables in the lower town hall, the children in Good- 
win's hall, and then provisions could be carried among the multitude 
outside, and the speaking be held in the tent. 

Joseph P. Crowell took the floor and remarked that he was aware 
that we had a big enterprise on our hands, and thought it was imprac- 
ticable to set tables in the tent, as had been intended. 

Several others thought that the present plans would have to be 
radically changed. All oiu* guests could not be accommodated at the 
tables, as proposed. A general and lengthy discussion ensued. Then 
J. P. Crowell moved that the chair appoint three persons as a special 
committee, to withdraw and draft a plan, in writing, as to the best 
method of feeding the probable thousands who would attend the cele- 
bration, the best place to have the tent located (as there were serious 
objections to the one decided upon), and to make other necessary sug- 
gestions. The chair appointed Joseph P. Crowell, William C. Harris, 
and Albert E. Simpson as that committee, and they immediately 



Difficult Questions Solved. 21 

retired. In three fourths of an hour the special committee returned 
to the hall and submitted the following report : 

1st. That the tables be set for dinner in the town hall for the distin- 
guished guests and band, and that tickets be distributed to as many 
others as can be seated at the tables. 

2d. That tables be set in Mr. Goodwin's hall for the school children 
and teachers. 

3d. That the balance of the people be seated in the large tent and the 
food be passed to them, the tent to be located on the north side of the 
town hall. 

The report of the committee was quickly adopted as the best solu- 
tion of a difficult question, and late in the afternoon the meeting ad- 
journed till Thursday, June 2d. 

On the latter date the committee and others met at the town house, 
cleared up the grove about it, cut down two large trees, an oak and 
an elm, moved the hearse house to make room for the tent, and 
graded up the ground. Some of the public-spirited citizens volun- 
teered to aid in this work. 

On Saturday, June 4th, the Executive Committee met, and, with 
others, erected the tent, with the tent manager, after which they met 
in the town hall. 

A long list of names was read by the president, and proposed as 
honorary officers and members of the committee. On motion of Hor- 
ace Berry, the list of names was adopted by a unanimous vote. 

The president stated that, considering the programme which had 
been prepared, it was a matter of absolute necessity that the exercises 
should commence promptly on schedule time, and that there should 
be no delay. 

The preceding is explanatory of the following from the unique re- 
port of thp secretary : 

The matter of getting the school children to Schoolhouse No. 6 by 
9 o'clock in the morning was discussed and talked over at some length. 
John A. Park was asked if he could get them there in season, and in fact 
was asked point blank by the president if he luould get them there in 
season from District No. 1. After a number of heavy shots were fired at 
him, he finally agreed to undertake the job (and did it finely). It was 
thought by the executive committees from the various districts that the 
school children would get there in season without any special convey- 
ance. So that matter was settled. L. A. Morrison reported that he had 
made arrangements with the Boston and Maine railroad to have the 8:20 
a. m. express train stop at the Junction and let off passengers. He also 
had found out the terms by which a special train could be had to run 



22 Report of the Secretary. 

from the Junction after the 6:30 p. m. train up, so as to accommodate 
those who might wish to go to Boston or any other point south later 
than the 5 o'clock train. 

It was moved by James Cochran, and seconded by A. E. Simpson, 
that we have a special train from Windham Junction to Lawrence, Mass. 
Carried by a majority vote, and L. A. Morrison was authorized to secure 
it. 

Efforts were made to secure a special train on the Nashua and Roch- 
ester road late in the afternoon of June 9th, by the committee, J. P. 
Crowell. After consultation with the parties most interested, in Nashua, 
it was thought best to abandon the project. 

- A. E. Simpson takes the floor, and says he wants to do the carpenter 
work on Monday next, as on Tuesday he must go to Lawrence to get the 
dishes and other things necessary for setting the tables and feeding the 
multitude, and on Wednesday he wants about thirty to come (men and 
women) and work all day, to wash the dishes, set the tables, cut the 
meat and bread and make the sandwiches, etc. The plans of Mr. 
Simpson were subsequently carried out. 

I quote again from the secretary's report : 

The subject of drinks comes up. It is suggested by H. Berry that 
we ought to have a clean barrel set near the town house, with ice water 
in it and supplied with faucets." The matter " was finally settled by a 
motion from H. Berry that A. E. Simpson secure two barrels at Law- 
rence, with faucets, so they can be used to supply the people with all 
necessary liquids, to cool the parched tongues and quench the thirst of the 
heterogeneous crowd. Carried. 

The Committee on Barges, Horace Berry, Jolin W. M. Worledge, 
and Alphonso F. Campbell, were instructed to make the best terms 
possible in procuring barges. They hired Mr. Abbott, of Derry, who 
charged 20 cents a passenger, each way, for transportation from 
Windham Junction to the town house. 

The selectmen were authorized to hire four policemen from some 
neighboring city for the day of celebration, and the meeting ad- 
journed, to meet on Monday, June 6th. 

On that day a portion of the committee and some others, to the 
number of fifteen, met at the town house and made the seats in the 
tent, built a stage at the north side of the tent, about equally distant 
from either end, for the speakers, and another at the west end for 
the band. The work was continued on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday many of the committee and a large number of peo- 
ple met at the town house, when the tables were partially set in the 
lower town hall and in Goodwin's hall, and the provisions cut and 



Collation Prepared. 23 

arranged for distribution to the people in the large tent the following 
day. The people of the town provided liberally of provisions, with 
the exception of meats and bread, which were purchased by the Com- 
mittee on Collation, ready for use. The following morning, A. E. 
Simpson, member of the Committee on Collation, who had had prin- 
cipal charge of that important branch of the celebration, was, with 
his wife and family as helpers, and others of the committee and peo- 
ple of the town, early at the town house, making the final arrange- 
ment for feeding the multitude. Dea. William D. Cochran, chairman 
of the Committee on Collation, who, the afternoon previous, had 
arrived home from Portland, Oregon, where he was a delegate from 
the Boston Presbytery to the Presbyterian General Assembly, was 
present, and assisted in the work. The setting of the tables in the 
lower town hall was completed, all the work that could be done was 
accomplished, and everything was ready for the public exercises of 
the celebration. 

The accoxmt of the celebration appears elsewhere. 

The day following the celebration, June 10, 1892, the committee, 
with others, met at the town house, where the dishes were washed 
and packed, ready for return to Lawrence; the seats were taken 
down and the liunber was piled up, and W. C. Harris was authorized 
to seU the same. Provisions and personal property on hand were sold 
by the committee. 

From aU sources $869.95 had been paid in, and A. E. Simpson, 
treasurer, reported that there would be a surplus. The committee 
were in favor of publishing the proceedings connected with the 
celebration, from the commencement to the close. It was moved by 
William D. Cochran, and seconded by Alphonso F. Campbell, that 
Leonard A. Morrison be authorized to compile the proceedings. 

The committee adjourned subject to the call of the president. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee, July 29, 1892, the fol- 
lowing resolutions, introduced by Horace Berry, were unanimously 
passed : 

Resolved, That we, the members of the Executive Committee of the 
celebration of the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Windham, 
N. H., tender our grateful thanks to our former fellow-citizen, Hon. 
James Dinsraoor, of Sterling, 111., for his finely-written, able, and instruc- 
tive address, at the celebration on June 9, 1892. 

Resolved, That the secretary be requested to transmit a copy of these 
resolutions to Mr. Dinsmoor. 



24 Vote to Print Proceedings. 

At this same meeting, on motion of William D. Cochran, the com- 
mittee voted to print the " History and Proceedings of the Celebra- 
tion of the 150th Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Settle- 
ment by People of Scotch blood, of Windham, N. H., held June 9, 
1892," as prejjared by Leonard A. Morrison. 

Figures giving an approximate cost of the publication of the same 
were presented by Mr. Morrison, and the committee voted to have 
1,000 copies printed ; to use the money in the treasury, $168.44, to re- 
duce the cost of the work ; to charge 75 cents a copy for the same, 
after thus reduced, and that Mr. Morrison secure the publication and 
have charge of the same. 



PROCEEDINGS, 

JUNE 9, 1892. 



The following was the programme prepared for the day by Leonard 
A. Morrison, William D. Cochran, and William C. Harris, Commit- 
tee on Literary Exercises. This was carried through successfully, as 
every person assigned, with one exception, was present, and filled his 
allotted place. Three gentlemen, Hon. James W. Patterson, Hon. 
George Wilson, and Hon. John G. Crawford, who were not upon the 
printed order of exercises, accepted invitations to speak. 

CELEBRATION 

of the 
150TH ANNIVERSARY 
of the 
INCORPORATION OF WINDHAM, 

New Hampshire, 
June 9, 1892. 



PROGRAMME. 

Ringing of the bell at sunrise. 

Music by the band on its ai'rival. 

At 9:30 a. m., the marshal, John H. Dinsmore, Esq., with the 
band, wiU march with the school children, under the charge of the 
School Board, from schoolhouse No. 6 to the town house, where they 
will disband. 

The marshal will then escort the officers of the day, the speakers, 
and invited guests, to the speakers' stand. 

1. The marshal will introduce the president of the day. 



26 The Programme. 

2. Reading of the Scriptures, Rev. E. B. Blanchard, Andover, 

Mass. 

3. Prayer, Rev. Augustus Berry, Pelham, N. H. 

4. Song : " Give me your hand, Old Friend of Youth," by the 

Windham Glee Club. 

5. Address of Welcome, by the president, Leonard A. Morrison. 

6. Music by the band. 

7. Reading of the petition for town charter, by the town clerk, 

John E. Cochran, Esq. 

8. Poem, Mrs. Margaret M. P. Dinsmoor. 

9. Music by the band. 

10. Historical address, by Hon. James Dinsmoor, Sterling, 111. 

11. Song: "The Rock of Liberty," by the Glee Club. 

12. Greetings from over the ocean : Letter of Rev. Gilbert Alex- 

ander Kennedy, of Aghadowey, county of Londonderry, 
Ireland. 

INTERMISSION. 

Invocation of the Divine Blessing, Rev. Cadford M. Dinsmoor, of 

Exeter, N. H. 

A social hour will be passed, enlivened by music by the band. 
After dinner, speaking to be resumed in the tent. 

RESPONSES TO SENTIMENTS. 

1. The Town of Windham, Evarts Cutler, Esq., New Haven, Ct. 

2. The Church of Windham, Rev. Samuel Morrison, Charlton, 

Mass. 

3. Our Public Schools, William C. Harris, Esq., Windham. 

4. Music by the band. 

5. The Nesmith Free Public Library, Rev. WiUiam E. Wester- 

velt, Windham. 

6. The Townships of Londonderry and Derry, Our Early Part- 

ners, William H. Anderson, Esq., Lowell, Mass. 

7. Music by the band. 

8. Our Scotch Forefathers in Scotland, Ireland, and New Hamp- 

shire, Rev. Warren R. Cochrane, D. D., Antrim, N. H. 

9. The Law, Hon. Francis Alexander Marden, New York City. 

10. Our Native State, New Hampshire, Gov. Hiram A. Tuttle. 

11. Music by the band. 

12. The United States, Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge, Lowell, Mass* 



The Programme. 



27 



13. Windham's Absent Sons and Daughters, and their Children, 

Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury, Boston, Mass. 

14. Music — " America " by the band, and sung by the audience. 

15. Closing Words by the president. 

16. Music by the band. 

TRAINS LEAVE WINDHAM JUNCTION 

For Manchester and Concord, 

1 : 48, 4 : 09, 6 : 28, 7 : 30 p. m. 
For Lawrence and Boston, 

3 : 04, 5 : 00 p. m. 

A special train will leave Windham Junction, for Lawrence at 
6:30 P. M. This train will connect with trains for Boston, and 
places South and East, and will enable visitors to remain till the close 
of the celebration. 

For Rochester and the East, 

2 : 20, 2 : 59, 4 : 34, 5 : 37 p. m. 
For Nashua, 

3 : 46 p. M. 

Barges will leave the Town House and carry passengers to all 
trains. 



DINNER. 



I50th Anniversary 



Windham, N. H. 



LOWBR HAIvIv. 



The Haverhill, Mass., City band, an organization of high repute, 
furnished music. It is one of the oldest organizations of the kind in 
the country, being organized February 3, 1843. It had the honor of 
playing at the dedication of Bunker Hill monument, and its members 
have badges worn by former members on that occasion. This is the 
list of members present June 9, 1892 : 



28 



Membership of the Band. 



MEMBERSHIP OF THE HAVERHILL CITY BAND, JUNE 9, 1892. 

Albin Kneupfer, Musical Director, .... 
Walter H. Goss, Agent, and General Business Manager 
Solomon Lowe, 
Charles B. Huntington, 



George A. Keene, 

R. B. Edwards, 

Franz Wilfert, 

A. D. Wingate, 

JosejA E. Goodrich, 

William J. Godfrey, 

Michael McGirr, 

C. Oscar Kimball, 

Stephen Ryan, . 

C. F. Berry, . 

James C. Wilkes, 

Fred W. Connor, 

A. G. Robertson, 

Herbert W. W. Downes, 

Charles Leighton, 

William Bartoll, 

Henry Page, 

Walter Thomas, Drum Major, 



Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Lawrence. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverliill. 
Lawrence. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Bradford- 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 
Haverhill. 



Gov. Hiram A. Tuttle and Mrs. Tattle, together with Attorney- 
General Albert E. Pillsbury and Mrs. Pillsbury, came on the early 
train, from Boston, which reached Windham about 9 a. m. Leonard 
A. Morrison, president of the day, boarded the train at Canobie 
Lake, to receive Governor and Mrs. Tuttle. A proper equipage 
awaited them at Windham Depot. Governor and Mrs. Tuttle, 
Leonard A. Morrison, Hon. A. E. Pillsbury, and Rev. E. B. Blan- 
chard rode together from Windham depot to the town hall. Several 
barges were present to carry the throngs that had arrived from Mas- 
sachusetts on the train. On the route many places were beautifully 
decorated with bunting and flags, and historic places designated — no- 
ticeably, the houses of Horace Berry and Mrs. D. M. Batchelder, 
and " the Manse," occupied by Rev. William E. Westervelt. At Mr. 
Horace Berry's, the spot where the early Nesmith home was located 
was appropriately designated. 

At the parsonage, the governor and party were met by the band, 
which played '' Hail to the Chief." On reaching the upper town 



Reception of Distinguished Guests. 29 

hall, members of the Executive Committee, with their ladies, Rev. 
William E. Westervelt, Mrs. Westervelt, and their daughter, and 
other citizens of Windham, together with visitors and guests, were 
waiting to receive the governor and his party. The reception lasted 
tiU 10:30 a. m., when the marshal of the day, John H. Dinsmore, Esq., 
formed the officers and visitors in line, and escorted them to the 
speakers' stand in the great tent. The marshal headed the line, fol- 
lowed by the president of the day and Mrs. Tuttle, Governor Tuttle 
and Mrs. Attorney-General Pillsbury, Hon. James Dinsmoor, orator 
of the day, Mrs. Dinsmoor, and other distinguished guests, visitors, 
speakers, and officers. 

Previous to this, at 10 o'clock, the school children of the town 
formed in procession at the Center schoolhouse. No. 6, and marched 
thi'ough the village to the town hall, conducted by the marshal, John 
II. Dinsmore. The procession was as follows : Haverhill City band, 
22 pieces ; school board, Benjamin E. Blanchard, William J. Emerson, 
and John W. M. Worledge ; students of Pinkerton academy, carrying 
a banner inscribed, " Success ;" scholars of the six public schools with 
their teachers, and carrying banners bearing the mottoes, " Punctual- 
ity," "Obedience," "Kindness," "Diligence," "Honesty," and "Per- 
severance." 



EXERCISES IN THE TENT, JUNE 9, 1892. 

The exercises in the tent began at twenty minutes to 11 o'clock. 
The marshal of the day, John Howard Dinsmore, Esq., entered the 
tent with the Haverhill City band, under the direction of Albin 
Kneupfer. Then followed the school children, in charge of the mem- 
bers of the school board, carrying pretty banners. They were hand- 
somely attired and took their seats on the left, facing the speakers' 
stand. The great tent was well filled when Mr. Dinsmore, ascending 
the platform, called the company to order, and said : 

Fellow-citizens, ladies and gentlemen : I now have the pleasure of 
introducing to you, Hon. Leonard A. Morrison, President of the 
Day. [Applause.] 

Mr. Morrison : — Ladies and gentlemen, the exercises of this 
interesting occasion will begin with the reading of the Scripture by 
Rev. E. B. Blanchard, of Andover, Mass. 

Mr. Blanchard said : — I will select, from God's Word, the 44th 
Psalm, and read the first eight verses : 



30 JSxercises in the Tent. 

1. We have heard with our ears, God, our fathers have told us, 
what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 

2. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plant- 
edst them ; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. 

3. For they got not the land in possession hy their own sword, nei- 
ther did their own arm save them : but thy right hand and thine arm, 
and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto 
them. 

4. Thou art my King, O God : command deliverances for Jacob. 

5. Through thee will we push down our enemies : through thy 
name will we tread them under that rise up against us. 

6. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. 

7. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to 
shame that hated us. 

8. In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name forever. 
Selah. 

Also from Psalm 78, the first seven verses : 

1. Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the 
words of my mouth. 

2. I will open my mouth in a parable : I will utter dark sayings of 
old: 

3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 

4. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the gen- 
eration to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his 
wonderful works that he hath done. 

5. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in 
Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them 
known to their children : 

6. Tliat the generation to come might know them, even the chil- 
dren which should be born ; who should arise and declare them to 
their children : 

7. That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works 
of God, but keep his commandments. 

And from Psalm 102, verses 11 to 28 : 

11. My days are like a shadow that declineth ; and I am withered 
like grass. 

12. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever : and thy remembrance 
unto all generations. 

13. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to 
favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 



Scripture Readings. 31 

14. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the 
dust thereof. 

15. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the 
kings of the earth thy glory. 

16. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his 
glory. 

17. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise 
their prayer. 

18. This shall be written for the generation to come : and the 
people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. 

19. For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary : 
from heaven did the Lord behold the earth ; 

20. To hear the groaning of the prisoner : to loose those that are 
appointed to death ; 

21. To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in 
Jerusalem ; 

22. When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to 
serve the Lord. 

23. He weakened my strength in the way : he shortened my days. 

24. I said, my God, take me not away in the midst of my 
days : thy years are throughout all generations. 

25. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the 
heavens are the work of thy hands. 

26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : yea, all of them shall 
wax old like a garment : as a vesture shalt thou change them, and 
they shall be changed : 

27. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. 

28. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall 
be established before thee. 

The President: — Prayer will be offered by the Rev. Augustus 
Berry, of Pelham. 

THE PBATER. 

Let us pray : Our Father, who art the Lord and the God of all 
the earth, whose we are and whom we should serve and acknowledge 
in all the scenes of life, we rejoice to recognize Thy presence and to 
recognize Thy government and Thy providence, and Thy beneficence 
as we are gathered on this occasion to remember the past, to recall the 
interesting and tender scenes of by-gone years. We thank Thee for 
this goodly town, this town whose sons and daughters have gone forth 



32 The Invocation. 

to distant states, and other parts of the world, and have come back 
to-day to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its organization. 

"We thank Thee for all that is benignant in the day : for the skies 
that are above us, withholding their moisture ; for the beauties of the 
green earth, and for tliis glad assemblage which has gathered on this 
occasion. And now we render Thee thanks that in the past there was 
established this municipality which has conserved the rights and in- 
terests of generations ; which has stood for justice and for truth. We 
thank Thee, Heavenly Father, for the fathers who did establish gos- 
pel institutions, and who did care for the interests of education. We 
thank Thee for the regard which they had for Thy Sabbath and for 
Thy sanctuary. We thank Thee for the virtues of life which distin- 
guished them, and that there did come through them a posterity that 
has made its mark in the world, and has so stood for justice and right 
and for all the great interests of our humanity. We pray that Thy 
smile may rest in an especial manner upon this occasion: we ask, 
Heavenly Father, that Thou wilt sanctify unto those who have come 
from a distance, those who have come from homes in other places to 
this, the home of their ancestors and of their own childhood : and as 
the tender memories of life come to them and throb in their souls, 
may it be a grand uplift to their own souls, and give each a higher 
and more precious view of the privilege of life, and may it intensify 
in them the responsibilities of living, and may all go forth from this 
occasion better prepared for duty, and to glorify the name of God. 

Remember those in an especial manner who have staid by the old 
homesteads, the old hearthstones, and the old interests of this munic- 
ipality. We ask that Thou wilt stimulate their hearts by the exercises 
of this day ; and may the toil and service and sacrifice which they 
have made to render this occasion a grand welcome to their kindred 
from abroad, inspire them with greater hope, greater faith, greater 
fortitude, and greater joy in service : and wilt Thou spare here, among 
these hills and iti these vales, homes of purity, homes of love, homes 
of Christian nurture, and homes of that intelligence which has char- 
acterized all the past, as long as the sun shall cause the green to come 
upon these hillsides and in these vales, and as long as the white man- 
tles of winter snows shall rest upon these same vales and these same 
hillsides. 

We pray that Thy grace may abound in large measure on this occa- 
sion to this people, and to all that shall come to occupy homes hei*e in 
the future, and when, at length, the great drama of time shall have 
been concluded, may this town have been found to have accomplished 



Crive Me Your Hand^ Old Friend of Youth. 



33 



manifestly and well her great part in human living. May Thy grace 
abound to us all ; may Thy benediction rest upon us, and may we be 
prepared for the sweet, for the blessed, and the eternal reunion in 
those vales where the sun never sets, and where sorrow and parting 
are unknown. We ask all in the name and for the sake of Jesus 
Christ, who is our Lord, our righteousness, and our Saviour. Amen. 

The President : — Ladies and gentlemen, in 1856 was organized 
the Windham Glee club. From that time to the present its ranks 
have been unbroken by death. Although out of practice, its members 
have very kindly consented to render some music for us to-day, at the 
earnest solicitation of their many friends. They will now sing the 
song, " Give Me Your Hand, Old Friend of Youth." 

The members of the Glee club, Benjamin E. Blanchard, James 
Cochran, William D. Cochran, Horace Anderson, Milan Anderson, 
Edwin O. Dinsmoor, and Albert A. Morrison, were applauded as they 
took their places upon the platform, and sang the following words : 

GIVE ME YOUR HAND, OLD FRIEND OF YOUTH. 
1. 
Give me your hand, old friend of youth, 

One hearty shake will do me good ; 
Though years have passed since last we met. 

The heart's the same — 'tis love renewed. 
Talk not of palace, prince or crown, 

Or worldly wealth, that fickle chaff. 
But rather round our hearts entwine 

Sweet schoolboy's days and childhood's laugh. 



Chorus — 



Give me your hand, old friend of youth. 
One hearty shake will do me good ; 

Though years have passed since last we met, 
The heart's the same, 'tis love renewed. 



Chorus. 



Give me your hand, old friend of youth, 

Though wrinkles on your brow are seen ; — 
Those eyes grow dim, but speak the words 

Of love — though years have I'olled between. 
We've met the world with all its change, 

And sought its pleasures, felt its pain ; 
Now the bright moment's come at last. 

Of early days — we're young again. 



34 Hurrah for Old New England. 

3. 

Give me your hand, old friend of youth, 

Gray though we've grown, old Time keeps pace ; 

Brothers are we, in love and truth — 
No fears have we to end the race. 

Here's happiness to friends of old, 
Affection's urn brimful of love ; 

Soon will it blossom, and unfold, 

A glorious flower, in realms above. 
Chorus. 

The club rendered the song with remarkable clearness, steadiness, 
and harmony, and, when they had completed, the applause was so 
prolonged that they felt bound to respond to the encore. This they 
did by singing the old-time popular air, beginning, " Hurrah for old 
New England and her cloud-capped granite hills." 

HURRAH FOR OLD NEW ENGLAND. 

1. 

This is our own, our native home, 

Tho' poor and rough she be ; 
The home of many a noble soul. 

The birthplace of the free. 
We'll love her rocks and rivers, 

Till death our quick blood stDls — 
Hurrah for old New England 

And her cloud-capped granite hills. 



Chorus — 



Chorus. 



Hurrah for old New England 

And her cloud-capped granite hills. 

Hurrah for old New England 

And her cloud-capped granite hills. 



Shall not the land, tho' poor she be. 

That gave a Webster birth. 
With pride step forth, to take her place 

With the mightiest of the earth ? 
Then, for his sake, whose lofty fame 

Our farthest bound'ry fills. 
We'll shout for old New England, 

And her cloud-capped granite hills. 



Address of Welcome. 



35 



Chorus. 



Chorus. 



They tell us of our freezing clime, 

Our hard and rugged soil, 
Which hardly half repays us for 

Our springtime care and toil; 
Yet gaily sings the merry boy, 

As the homestead farm he tills. 
Hurrah for old New England 

And her cloud-capped granite hills. 

4. 

Others may seek a western clime — 

They say 'tis passing fair. 
That sunnj' are its laughing skies. 

And soft its balmy air ; 
We'll linger 'round our childhood's home, 

Till age our warm blood chills. 
Till we die in old New England, 

And sleep beneath her hills. 



This song was finely rendered, and was received with much enthu- 
siasm by the audience at its conclusion. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Leonard A. Morrison, president of the day, gave the following 
address of welcome : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

" We walk to-day the halls of story, 
'Mid pictures of the olden time. 
And voices, from an ancient glory, 
That charm us like a silver chime." 

It is well to meet upon this interesting occasion. It thrills our 
hearts with throbbing memories of a past historic, and fruitful of 
good deeds. It awakens recollections that are sacred ; arouses a 
deeper veneration for all that was grand, true, and heroic in the char- 
acters and lives of our predecessors. It causes the patriotic fires to 
glow with a steadier, brighter, and purer flame. As we review the 
150 vanished years — as there pass before our mental vision the silent 
generations with their accomplished labors — as we stand this day and 



36 The First Residents. 

moment in their sacred presence, on this ground which they trod — 
like the Jewish patriarch of old, we would remove the shoes from off 
our feet, for the ground on which we stand is holy ! 

Surrounded hy these sheltering hills, on these lengthening vales our 
fathers founded their homes, and lived their eventful lives. With me, 
turn backward the rolling years, and behold the founders of this set- 
tlement. Behold them in their ancient homes — behold them here. 
Since their advent, 172 years have joined those beyond the flood, and 
150 have passed since the incorporation. 

This town was a bleak and cheerless wilderness at the advent of its 
first residents. It was vininviting to less dauntless souls — but they fal- 
tered not. With courage undaunted, with tenacity of purpose strong 
as life, they labored successfully, and laid deep and abiding the foun- 
dations of the institutions of this township. 

They belonged to a class not easily dismayed by obstacles, — to a 
class that never was, and never could be, permanently subdued or 
conquered. Ojipressions numberless, sufferings innumerable, and 
sometimes unto death itself, had they, or their ancestors, endured. 
Yet the heel of no conqueror ever successfully pinioned their strong 
necks to the cold bosom of the earth. They could die for the right, 
bvit they never betrayed it. They belonged to a class who were 
" ashamed to die " tUl they had accomplished something which added 
to human knowledge, human advancement, and human joy. 

This people were Scotch in blood, Presbyterians in their religious 
faith, and John Knox was their great high priest. Their ancestors in 
the mountains and moors of Scotland had subscribed to the Solemn 
League and Covenant, and neither king nor pope, prelate nor priest, 
could force them to abjure their faith. Their own religious teachers 
they judged by the high standard of the Bible. 

They were largely from the lowlands of Scotland, the land of 
Burns and Scott, of Wallace and Bruce ; the land of fair fields and 
wild heather, of famous mountains and foaming floods. Persecutions 
fierce and unrelenting drove them from their native heaths to the war- 
smitten province of Ulster in Ireland, and a generation later some of 
this same people settled in Londonderry and Windham. Many of 
those now before me are their descendants, and at this moment I am 
looking into their very eyes. Such were the people who founded this 
township. 

What they and their descendants have accomplished here physi- 
cally, let the observant stranger behold as he passes through the 
length and breadth of the town, in the smiling fields reclaimed from 



Their Scotch Blood. 37 

the unbroken forests, and gardens and vast tracts of land freed from 
rocks and boulders, planted there by Nature's too lavish hand. 

What they and their descendants have accomplished in various di- 
rections, others sball rehearse to you. 

The founders and fathers of this settlement are gone. Their places 
are vacant. Their memory, fresh and undying, lingers ever with us. 
Their strong thoughts are crystallized into living facts and institutions. 
Their sparkling wit glitters in many a speech, while the lips which 
first uttered it long ago mouldered back to dust. The fiercely beat- 
ing winds have for long years swept over their resting places on plain 
and sloping hill. The white wintry blasts have sung their dirge ; 
while Nature's kindly hand has over them to-day strown the light and 
heat of summer's sun. 

" No sigh can reach them, 
For they dream an endless dream." 

Sons and daughters of Windham : On this anniversary day we re- 
joice to see you here. We bid you welcome to your early home, and 
to the home of your fathers. We bid you welcome to our streets, to 
our hills, valleys, and sparkling waters ; to our historic places, with 
their associations and tender memories ; we bid you welcome to hos- 
pitable homes. The arching skies, the smiling fields, the shimmering 
waters of every stream, with the warbling notes of every bird of 
every tree, give forth their joyous welcome. To friends of every 
town of every state, to every stranger here, we give kindliest greeting. 
We are all one to-day. One in interest, one in joy, one in recogniz- 
ing the claims of the living and in honoring the memories of the 
departed. 

In all that shall stir the heart with irrepressible joy, we unite with 
you. In all that shall awaken blessed memories of years that are 
gone, we rejoice together. We devote this day to these sentiments, 
associations, and quickened memories. Once more, my friends, one 
and all, in behalf of the citizens of Windham, tenderly, gladly, and 
heartily, I bid you welcome. 

The band then struck up the "American Overture," composed of 
national airs, which was beautifully rendered. 

The President : — Ladies and Gentlemen : Hiram S. Reynolds, 
Esq., secretary of the Celebration Committee, will now announce a 
list of the ofl&cers of the day. 

It was as follows : 



38 Officers of the Day. 

OFFICERS OF THE DAY. 

President — Leonard A. Morrison. 

Vice-Presidents — William C. Harris, John H. Dinsmore, Janiies 
Emerson, WUliam A. Dinsmoor, Jacob Alpheus Nesmith, Isaac P. 
Cochran, Windham ; Rei Hills, Pelham ; Samuel Campbell, Derry ; 
George W. Armstrong, Boston, Mass. ; George WUson, New Bedford, 
Mass. ; WiUiam D. Blanchard, Thomas W. Simpson, Aaron Blanch- 
ard, Lowell, Mass. ; Benjamin O. Simpson, Cherokee, Iowa ; Silas 
M. Moore, Chicago, 111. ; Robert P. Morrison, Lawrence, Mass. ; 
Robert C. Mack, Jonathan McAllister, Londonderry ; James C Tay- 
lor, Joseph Montgomery, Greenleaf C. Bartlett, Joseph R, Clark, 
Derry ; Francis A. Marden, Nashua ; Orlando Davidson, Elgin, 111. ; 
George Marshall, Everett, Mass. ; Charles Jesse Simpson, West Som- 
ervUle, Mass. 

Secretaries — Hiram S. Reynolds, Windham ; George W. Weston, 
Exeter ; William W. Poor, Derry. 

Marshal — John H. Dinsmore. 

Honorary Committee — Benjamin E. Blanchard, Abel Dow, James 
Barker, Isaiah W. Haseltine, George F. Armstrong, Joseph C Arm- 
strong, Windham ; Virgil Dow, Methuen, Mass. ; Charles Cochran, 
Olivet, Kansas ; Charles Cutler, Tallmadge, Ohio ; Jonathan L. 
Noyes, Faribault, Minn. ; Carroll Cutler, Talladega, Ala. ; D. O. 
Smith, Hudson ; John Hall, Philadelphia, Penn. ; Joel C. Carey, 
Darius Milton Thom, Salem. 

In recognition of the early and intimate connection of Londonderry 
and Derry with Windham, Robert C Mack and Jonathan McAllister 
of Londonderry, and W. W. Poor, James C. Taylor, Joseph Mont- 
gomery, Greenleaf C Bartlett, and Joseph R. Clark of Derry were 
made honorary officers of the day. 

The President : — In 1742 this town was incorporated. Among 
its settlers was William Thom. I have in my hand the oldest record 
book of the town. These records were written by one who has been 
sleeping in his grave for nearly one hundred years. This book alsa 
gives the petition for the incorporation of the town, which will now 
be read by John E. Cochran, Esq., the town clerk. 



Petition for Charter. 39 



PETITION FOR CHARTER. 

To His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esq Gov't and Commander In Chief 
in and over His Majestys Province of New Hampshire, The Hon^^^ His 
Majestys Council and House of Representatives for said Province in 
General Court Convened. 

I'he Petition of Sundry of the Inhabitants of the South part of Lon- 
donderry in said Province, Humbly Shows 

That your Petitioners by the Situation of their estates and Places of 
residence in the said Town labor under considerable difficulties unknown 
to others not in their circumstances more especially with respect to their 
Attendance on the public worship. The greater part of them or rather 
all of them except three living upwards of Seven miles from either of the 
meetinghouses in the said Town, the inconveniences of which are self 
evident. 

That the Inhabitants of the Parish in the said town to which your 
Petitioners principally belong, sensible of the difficulties attending your 
Petitioners in this regard have lately at a public meeting voted what 
should be the boundaries of a new parish if the Petitioners can obtain 
the aiithority of this court to incorporate them, and that there will be no 
opposition (as your Petition" conceive) from any part of the said Town 
to the erecting a new parish by the boundaries voted as afores''. Where- 
fore your Petitioners most humbly Pray this Hon^'^ Court to erect a New 
Parish in the said Town by the boundaries aforesaid which will compre- 
hend a tract of land near six miles in length and four in breadth lying 
on the South side at the Easterly end of the said Town and Take in your 
Petitioners habitations & estates, and that they may be invested with 
such legal powers and authorities as may be sufficient to answer the ends 
and purposes of such a precinct, and your Petitioners as in duty bound 
will ever pray, &c. 

Thom. Morrison. Jam' Bell. 

Halbert INIorrison. Sam McAdams. 

Jn°. Dinsmore. Jn° Bolton. 

Rob' Hopkin. Tho' Quigly. 

John Cochran. David Gregg. 

Alexand"" Dunlap. John Armstrong. 

Jn° Gillmore. Alexand"^ Park, Jr. 

Jam' Dunlap. Alexand"' Park. 

Rob' Tompson. Ezekiel Morrison. 

Jn" Wilson. Rob* Dinsmore. 

Jn° McKye. Sam' Morrison. 

Jos'^ Waugh. W" Jameson. 

Jn° Stewart. Jn" Kyle. 

W-" Bolton. Ja Gilmore. 

J" Bolton. Rob' Park. 



40 Address of Grov. Hiram A. Tuttle. 

David Bolton. Ja^ Caswell. 

W" Gregg. Jno Kyle, Jr. 

Henry Campbell. Samuel Campble. 

W"' Campbell. Jam« Campble. 

Tho» Campble. NatW Hemphill. 

Hugh Grimes. Sam' Smith. 

W" Emerson, Jr. W" Waugh. 

Ja' Caswel, Jr. Ju° Gilmore. 

Jno Murray. Jn° Vance. 
Arthur Grimes. 

Mr. Cochran read this quaint old document very effectively, and it 
proved of general interest. 

The President : — Ladies and Gentlemen : It is a very interesting 
fact that one of the commissioners appointed by the governor and 
council to call the first tovrn meeting vpas Robert Dinsmoor, an ances- 
tor of the orator who wiU to-day deliver the historical address. In 
this connection, it is with pleasure that I announce to you that we 
have with us the chief magistrate of the state. Upon the progi*amme he 
was to respond to a sentiment this afternoon, but he assures me that 
he will be obliged to leave before the conclusion of the day's exer- 
cises, so I shall call upon him in a few moments to respond to this 
sentiment, — " Our native state of New Hampshire : the bright particu- 
lar star in the galaxy of states which commands our deepest love. May 
the inspiration from the lives of her illustrious sons and daughters, like 
the quickening breezes from her granite hiUs, infuse new life, nobler 
thoughts, and more elevated sentiments into the hearts of her living 
children." To respond to this sentiment, which touches a responsive 
chord in every soul, I now caU upon His Excellency Governor Hiram 
A. Tuttle, and I ask you all to give three cheers for the governor. 

Every one arose and gave three hearty cheers, the band playing, 
meanwhile, " Hail to the Cliief." 

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR HIRAM A. TUTTLE. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I sincerely thank you for 
this very cordial gi'eeting. I did not come here to-day to make a 
speech but rather to listen, and I will say this much, — that I am very 
much pleased with what I have heard and seen here. A courteous 
invitation brought me to witness the celebration of the 150th anniver- 
sary of the organization of the goodly town of Windham. Ten years 
ago there was a gathering for a similar purpose of the residents and 







/W 0^<:^^i-7-^^ 



Address of Grov. Hiram A. Tuttle. 41 

former residents of my native town, in which I took part, and I am 
thereby better able to appreciate your impressions and emotions now 
as you meet and greet each other here. These occasions are desirable 
and profitable. By them the old and middle-aged are gratified and 
the young may be inspired with nobler purposes. 

When the appointed orator and other speakers sketch in pleasant 
terms the favorable part of our history, and unfold before us the 
brave and beneficent deeds and many virtues of our townsmen of the 
past and present, our breasts swell with commendable pride and our 
nerves thi'ill with delight. 

I have often shot through Windham rapidly by rail, but have never 
tarried long enough to become familiar v/ith its special localities. I 
know it best through acquaintance with some of its excellent citizens. 
But it is a well and widely known fact that Windham, with the other 
towns formed from the primitive Nutfield, was exceedingly fortunate 
in having for its first settlers those sturdy Scotch people who had 
been trained through successive generations in maintaining their re- 
ligious convictions and forms of worship against the most cruel perse- 
cution in both Scotland and Ireland. Never were emigrant settlers 
made of better stuff than were these. They brought with them love 
of God, a strong, steadfast, abiding faith, love of learning, and a love 
of civil liberty with the wiU to defend it. They brought with them 
habits of industry, economy, and thrift. Bissell's camp and its deni- 
zens were not in accord with Windham notions. 

Remembrance of many of the higher benevolent, brave, and bril- 
liant deeds of people in New Hampshire towns will soon be lost in 
oblivion for want of an appreciative scribe to record them. But 
Windham has been fortunate in having in one of her own sons a 
historian whose work will transmit to future ages a knowledge of its 
people for the past 150 years or more. [Applause.] 

Having been called upon to sjDeak for New Hampshire, pardon me 
for referring to your history, with which you are all so familiar, to 
show that New Hampshire is fortunate in having Windham among 
its municipalities. She has given the state a governor, who was also 
a member of the national house of representatives. This governor 
had a son who in due time succeeded his father as governor. One of 
the fair daughters of Windham became the wife of a governor, and 
also the mother of a governor who subsequently represented New 
Hampshire in the United States senate. The sons of Windham have 
attained distinction in each of the learned professions. Among her 
men of letters are a college president, three college professors, a dis- 



42 The Centeiiarian. 

tinguished editor, and numerous teachers of eminence. In inventions, 
manufactures, transportation, and various other branches of extensive 
business enterprises, the natives of Windham have held high rank. 
Many of her sons and daughters, seeking broader and more promising 
fields for the exercise of their genius, enterprise, and industry, may 
be fou:id in homes scattered over our country, where prosperity and 
success have attended them. Such as these and the residents here 
should continue to cherish a profound regard for the old town, and 
never cease to instil into the minds of their children a love for 
Windham and its history, and a love, also, for their heroic ancestry 
beyond the sea, until Jenney's hill, Cobbett's pond, and Butterfield's 
rock are no more. [Applause.] 

• At this point the president conducted to the stage the venerable 
Mrs. Sarali EUenwood, formerly of Pelham, a remarkably well pre- 
served lady, who passed her 100th birthday several months before, 
and who is a resident of Windham. She was presented to the audi- 
ence in these words : 

I am gratified to state this interesting fact, that there is a lady 
here, Mrs. Sarah EUenwood, of this town, who has reached the ven- 
erable age of almost 101 years. [Loud applause.] I now have the 
pleasure of presenting her to you. [Renewed applause.] 

The audience showed great interest in the aged lady, who looked 
bright and smart, and seemed to enjoy the occasion, which she had 
come three miles to attend. She bowed and smiled to the audience, 
and Governor Tuttle helped her to a chair, and seated her comfort- 
ably beside himself. 

The President : — The next thing u2)on the programme, my 
friends, is a poem written by Mrs. Margaret M. (Park) Dinsmoor, 
of th's town, which, by her request, I will now read. 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 

Two hundred years have sunsets glowed and paled, 
Two hundred years of stu-ring tale and song, 

Since from the moors and crags of Scotia's land 
A sturdy band uprose and fled from wrong. 

A fair green isle lay smiling near at hand. 

And bright the grasses trembled in the breeze 

Of softened air that swept the Emerald isle 

Where homes they sought, across the narrow seas. 



Mrs. M. M. P. Dinsmoor' s Poem. 43 

No welcome warm they met on Celtic shores, 

But cool dislike that ripened into hate. 
'T was peace they asked. Alas 1 't was war they found, 

And heavy-handed wrong from church and state. 

Then angry foes and Stuart king pressed hard, 

With harrying fire and fight on every side ; 
But staunch and true, their mighty faith ne'er shook. 

They triumphed — even while they fell and died. 

The bold MacGregors of the highland clans, 

With stout old fighters of the Lowland moor, 
Joined hands when dire injustice reigned in blood. 

And strove with sword and shot to break its power. 

In vain : yet o'er the waters wild and wide, 

A rugged land lay open-armed and free. 
The west wind wandr'ng from the deep pine woods 

Brought o'er the waves the breath of liberty. 

The broad seas stretched a helping hand across. 

And ere the century grew old in years. 
Our shores had welcomed a small pilgrim band, 

Who thus a victory won o'er blood and tears. 

They chose a pleasant place among the pines, 

And chestnut groves, where flowing brooks give food. 

They planted there the banner of their faith, 

Sang praise, and asked a blessing where they stood. 

The God for whom they fought upheld them well. 

No red man drew his twanging bow in hate ; 
No fire or flood their hard-earned homes laid waste ; 

Nor lurking foe in ambush crouched await. 

The wild beast fled before their hearthstone's blaze 
And soon broad fields lay smiling to the sky: 

Gnarled oak and towering pine tree soon gave place 
To tasseled corn and dancing wheat and rye. 

The canny Scotsmen to their western homes 

Brought thrifty trades and honest craft, 
And soon in every lowly log-built house 

The flax-wheel hummed and happy children laughed. 

The father to the listeners at his knee 

Told tales of troublous days in Fatherland, 
Where yellow gorse and purple heather bloomed, 

And tassled broom its golden plumy wand 



44 Mrs. M. M. P. Dinsmoor' s Poem. 

Waved where the craggy hidden pathway lay, 
When Claverhouse with cruel minions crept 

To find the secret way, and tracked their steps, 

Then on theu- homes like mighty whirlwind swept. 

They sang old songs of " Bothwell Brigg," 
Or hap of war at direful Killiecrankie ; 

The " Battle of the Boyne " with joyful notes, 
Or scorn of " Brave MacKye behind the bankie." 

Their lives were bare, yet sweetened with the rare 
And beautiful content that true hearts know, 

That glorified the labors of each day 
Like landscape bathed in sunset's afterglow. 

The tree thus planted grew apace and strong : 
Its roots struck deep, its branches spread afar, 

And sheltered all who sought its cheery shade ; 

Their numbers grew, their gateways always stood ajar. 

A vigorous, sturdy shoot from that fair tree 

Sprang up and grew hard by in neighboring soil : 

The Covenanter grasped hands with Puritan, 
And, side by side, those noble men of toil 

Built church and school and laid foundations broad 
For future strength in right and justice true ; 

With conscience clear their steady lives went on ; 
Whate'er was right, they bravely dared to do. 

All honor then to the stern old Scottish men 
Whose stalwart feet were set beneath our sky ; 

With trust in God, no hand of man could mar. 
Who came, with battle-scars scarce healed, to die 

In stranger land with hardships closed around, 
For Peace, sweet Peace, and perfect Liberty, 

To worship undisturbed by sound of aught 

Save winds, and singing birds, and humming bee. 

Our Fathers claimed, ere yet of two score years 
The snows lay white on autumn's fields of brown, 

A place among the archives of the land. 

And stood among their fellow men — a Town. 

The century its years has rounded full 
And at the halfway milestone paused a jot. 

To greet today, the Birthday of our Town. 
Let childi-en's children e'er forget it not. 





^^^2^^, a.^^^^<2r 



;.^fe^ 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 45 

But send a backward glance along the Past 
And gather up the memories ere they fade ; 

Let Then and Now clasp hands across the gulf 
That three times fifty changeful years have made. 

Let cheery welcome be on every tongue — 

Each friend meet friend with brightening eyes ; 

And while with joy old friendships we renew, 
We draw still closer yet our clannish ties. 

When fifty years thrice o ' er have paused again, 
And Progress marked its way with giant stride, 

Let sons and daughters gather here once more 

And greet our staunch old Scottish town with pride. 

At the conclusion of the reading of the poem, the band played a 
selection entitled " O Fair Dove ! O Fond Dove !" This arrangement 
was really a fantasia on the beautiful song. 

After a few minutes' recess the president again called the assem- 
blage to order and said, — 

" Among the noted families of this town is that of Dinsmoor. 
The migrating ancestor came very early to this township. It has 
had many illustrious men and beautiful women among its members. 
The orator of this day belongs to this family. He is one who has 
cast honor upon this township and has done credit to himself. I have 
the pleasure of introducing to you the Hon. James Dinsmoor, of 
Sterling, Illinois, the orator of the day. [Loud applause.] 

ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES DINSMOOR. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — One hundred and fifty 
years ago, our fathers, clothed with authority from the legislative 
branch of the then province of New Hampshire, assembled in pursu- 
ance of the warrant of the three men named in the charter, at the 
house of James Bell, and by those concurrent acts the town of Wind- 
ham became a living entity. Lord Macaulay has said that "A peo- 
ple which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ances- 
tors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered by remote 
descendants." 

Fully appreciating this aphorism of the learned historian, we have 
assembled to stand upon the ancient ways our fathers trod, and to 
place upon memory's altar a tribute of praise to those heroes and her- 



46 Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

oines who laid the foundation and hewed the architrave of our exist- 
ence as a town. The same sun shines over our heads, the same soil is 
under our feet, the same beautiful lakes fill the measure of their an- 
cient compass, the same limpid streams flow on their course to the 
same Merrimack. All else, how changed ! The very act of incor- 
poration was in the name of George Second, by the Grace of God, of 
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, 
etc. Then, England was a second-class power in Europe. France 
and Spain both excelled her in wealth and military splendor, and the 
title of George the Second to be king of France was an ancient fic- 
tion. France, at that time, held Nova Scotia, with the then strongly- 
fortified post of Louisburg, both the Canadas, and, in connection with 
their Indian allies, a chain of stations west of the Alleghanies extend- 
ing to Louisiana. The English colonies in this country were then 
poor and feeble, and probably did not exceed a million of people, 
scattered along the Atlantic coast with a savage foe always hanging 
on their flank. No brotherly love existed between France and Eng- 
land, and the superior military tact and finesse of the French with the 
red man, placed the English colonists in constant alarm from the in- 
cursions of the French and Indians. The tillable land on the Atlan- 
tic coast was covered with a dense growtli of timber, which must be 
cleared oif by the colonists before cultivation of the soil coiild yield 
sustenance. No pioneer had preceded them, and built a shelter from 
the heat, or cold, or storm which the colonist could buy. No roads 
had been made, no stream dammed for water power, no miU built for 
meal or lumber. There was naught but the broad, savage expanse of 
land and trees, and naught but the good hands of the colonists could 
cut the way to the comforts of civilized life. No faint-hearted man 
was equal to such an undertaking. He must be a born hero, and his 
wife must be such as our mothers were. 

What marvellous results have been achieved since that day ! By 
the dread arbitrament of arms the English-speaking races have be- 
come the sole masters of the fairest portion of the American conti- 
nent. What was then a vast >vilderness, the abode of savages, has be- 
come the seat of the most enlightened and refined people, the richest 
in agricultural, mineral, mercantile and commercial wealth ; where 
civil and religious liberty, like the air of heaven, pervades the whole 
land ; where there are in everyday use, for the ordinary wants of the 
people, more miles of better-equipped railroads than in all the rest of 
this earth ; where the whole people are better fed, better clothed, bet- 
ter behaved, than any other nation on the face of the earth ; where 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 47 

legislative bodies do not feel compelled to sit in session with their hats 
on, as does the British Parliament, in order to notify the lookers-on 
that they acknowledge no man as superior, but preserve the amenities 
of civilized life while legislating for the most powerful of nations. All 
this, and much more, is the product of a century and a half of free, 
intelligent, and self-applied labor. To whom is the world indebted 
for this boon to the human race ? Whence came the men who had 
the physical powers of endurance, to overcome the untamed forces of 
nature, and subject them to the growing wants of civilized man ; to 
face and overcome a savage foe, and, at the same time, the still more 
wonderful ability to keep up the religious, moral, and political train- 
ing which enabled them to rule their own spirit, which the wise man 
told us was greater than taking a city — to govern and educate them- 
selves, and to provide a constitutional, representative government for 
themselves, to be transmitted to their posterity ? The casual student 
of American history would be led to attribute all this to the Puritan, 
the Hollander, the Huguenot, and the Cavalier, as he reads what 
these people have written of what has been said and suffered and 
done. But we have to do to-day with the Scotch-Irish, the men who, 
in the early days of the 17th century, carried with them to the north 
of Ireland that love of God and of hmnan liberty which they had 
learned in lowland hut and kirk, and which had become the web and 
woof of their moral being. Now, let us see whence our fathers came, 
and who they were. In blood they were pure Scotch, and in religion 
they were Presbyterians. The early history of the Scotch, as a race, 
is involved in mystery, and I will not attempt to unveil it at this 
time. There were several well-defined characteristics which ran in the 
blood, and have been handed down from generation to genei*ation in 
their posterity, and crop out to this day. The Scotch are not Eng- 
lish ; they are not Irish. We know by Roman history that the Ro- 
mans conquered and held sway over continental Europe, and con- 
quered England, and held it in subjection 400 years, and we know 
from the same source that they did not and could not conquer Scot- 
land, and gave up trying. Not only that, but they could not protect 
their subjects in England from the warlike incursions of the Scots. 
And the Roman emperor, Agricola, in order to protect the English 
from the Scots, built a wall twelve feet high and seventy miles long, 
extending from Solway Firth to the mouth of the Tyne, with a moat 
thirty-six feet wide and twelve feet deep. But that did not restrain 
the Scots, and, subsequently, the Emperor Adrian built a second 
wall, extending from Newcastle to Carlisle. The intervening terri- 



48 Address hy Hon. James Dins7noor. 

tory between the two walls was the fighting ground of the Scots and 
the Romans till the inroads o£ the Goths and Vandals on the Eternal 
City obliged the Romans to abandon Britain. And, afterwards, Scot- 
land was never subject to the crowned head of England till England 
was obliged, by the divine right of succession, to go to Scotland to 
get a head to crown. Scotland, up to the time of James First, of 
England, was governed, so far as it was governed at all, by its own 
kings and subject to the laws enacted by the Scotch parliament, if, in 
truth, they can be said to have been subject to any power, save the 
arm that was, at the time being, the strongest. 

History tells us that one of the Scottish chiefs was summoned for 
trial for an ofliense against the government. He came willingly, but 
he brought with him 5,000 of his dependents, mounted, and armed to 
the teeth, as much as to say, '' I am ready to be acquitted ; who 
doubts it, let him look around me." He was acquitted. 

The revival of learning, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
roused the world from that lethargy in which it had been sunk for 
ages. The human mind felt its own strength, broke the fetters of au- 
thority without reason by which it had been so long bound, and 
pushed inquiries with boldness into all subjects of thought, and reli- 
gion was one of the fii'st objects that claimed its attention. "The opin- 
ions of Luther spread from the heart of Germany, with astounding 
rapidity, over all Europe, and wherever they came, endangered or 
overturned the ancient system of religion. The vigilance and address 
of the court of Rome, cooperating with the power of the Austrian 
family, suppressed the teachings of Luther in the southern kingdoms, 
but the fierce spirit of the north, irritated by multiplied impositions, 
could neither be mollified by the same arts nor subdued by the same 
force, and easily bore down the feeble opposition of an illiterate and im- 
moral clergy." The form of popery which prevailed in Scotland was 
of the most bigoted and illiberal kind. Those doctrines which are 
most apt to shock the mind, and those legends which farthest exceed 
belief, were proposed to that people without any attemj^t to palliate or 
disguise them, nor did the j^eople ever call in question the reason- 
ableness of the one or the truth of the other. The power and wealth 
of the Romish church kept pace with the progress of superstition. 
The Scottish kings early demonstrated how much they were under its 
influence, by their vast additions to the immunities and riches of the 
clergy. The profuse piety of King David I., who acquired on that 
accoimt the title of saint, transferred almost the whole of the crown 
lands of the Scottish kings, which were at that time of great extent, 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 49 

into the hands of the clergy. This example was imitated by his suc- 
cessors, and this spirit spread among all orders of men, who loaded 
the priesthood with new possessions. " The Scottish clergy paid one 
half of every tax imposed on land, so that, at the time of the Refor- 
mation, little (if any) less than one half of the national property had 
fallen into the hands of the church. This extraordinary share in the 
national property was accompanied with a proportionate weight in 
the supreme council of the kingdom. The lord chancellor was the 
first subject in the kingdom, both in dignity and power. From the 
earliest ages of the monarchy to the death of Cardinal Beaton, fifty- 
four persons had held that office, and forty-three of them had been 
churchmen." 

Such was the religious condition of Scotland in 1534, when Henry 
the Eighth, of England, threw off the papal yoke, because the pope 
would not grant him a divorce from Queen Catharine. Eight years 
after that, John Knox began to disseminate the doctrines of the Ref- 
ormation among his pupils in Scotland, in consequence of which he 
was degraded from the priesthood, denounced as a heretic, and only 
escaped assassination by flight. He was a man of great oratorical 
powers, bold and fearless in his speech, captivating in his style, and 
to Scotland what the justly-celebrated George Whitefield was to 
England, as a preacher, in his day. 

We don't know how much we are indebted to that same John 
Knox. Historians acknowledge that he was the chief promoter of 
the Reformation in Scotland. He was born in 1505, in a suburb of 
Haddington, secured the rudiments of his education at the Had- 
dington grammar school, and studied philosophy and theology 
at St. Andrew's college. This fact, which historians have record- 
ed of John Knox, shows us the condition of education in Scot- 
land in his day. I remember that our college professor of history 
used to tell us that the common school system, which has been 
the glory and the boast of New England, and has traveled west with 
every emigrant wagon tiU it has reached the Pacific ocean, originated 
in Scotland. I have not time to verify his statement, but we find a 
grammar school in that little town one hundred years before the May- 
flower struck Plymouth Rock, and prior to the Scotch emigration to 
the province of Ulster. Knox became so obnoxious to Cardinal Bea- 
ton and Archbishop Hamilton that he was obliged to seek safety in 
concealment in the castle of St. Andrews, where he resumed his 
duties of teaching, giving lectures on the scriptures, and regularly 
catechising his hearers in the parish church in which he ministered. 
4 



60 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

While there, the castle was invested by the French force sent to the 
assistance of the regent, Arran, and the garrison, after a brave and 
vigorous resistance, was obliged to capitulate, and all witliin it were 
carried to France as prisoners of war. The captives were detained 
in the galleys in France more than a year, and Knox, in that place of 
confinement, wrote out a confession of his faith, and transmitted it to 
the adherents of the Reformed reUgion, in Scotland. This is the ear- 
liest written confession of Presbyterian faith of which we have any 
account. His reputation, and zeal in the Reformation commended 
him to Archbishop Cranmer, of England ; and, through the interposi- 
tion of Edward Sixth of England with the king of France, Knox 
was released, passed over to England, appointed by the privy coun- 
cil preacher of the reformed doctrines, preached before his majesty, 
Edward the Sixth, at Westminster, was offered the bishopric of Roch- 
ester, but declined it, and returned to Scotland. 

It wUl be kept in mind that, all this time, the influence of the 
crown, so-called, in Scotland, was adverse to the Reformation, and 
yet, in August, 1560, the Presbyterian religion received the sanction 
of the Scotch parliament, the old ecclesiastical courts were abolished, 
and the exercise of a religious worship according to the rites of the 
Romish church entirely prohibited. Wlien King James the Sixth 
was crowned, John Knox jireached the coronation sermon, the first 
coronation sermon ever preached by a Protestant. AVhen James the 
Sixth, of Scotland, became king of England and Ireland, as well as 
Scotland, he found that the province of Ulster, and, indeed, about 
one fourth of the territory of Ireland, had been depopulated by wars 
to subdue rebellions, and that by biUs of attainder passed by the 
English parliament, the lands had reverted to the crown. King 
James, with a Scotch eye to home industry and thrift, conceived the 
plan of re-peopling those waste places with an industrious, thrifty, 
loyal people. The method adopted was the only one that has proven 
successful in colonization. The land was vacant. The man of enter^ 
prise, courage, push ; the man in debt who wanted another chance of 
success, with different surroundings ; the man who was hemmed in 
with too close neighbors, or crowded out by the ill-tempered and over- 
bearing, woidd see the chance to assert himself, and, with nerves of 
steel, would take up his line of march for the promised land. It was 
the process of sifting out the sturdy, self-reliant, independent men and 
women from every neighborhood in which that class could be found. 
It was but natural that the lowlands of Scotland should furnish the 
complement of people for such an enterprise. They were educated 



Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 51 

to think for themselves. They had adopted the Presbyterian form of 
church government under the teaching of the peerless John Knox, and 
in the church polity had the fundamental principles of self-govern- 
ment. They went upon the lands as tenants, and by their industry 
and tact reclaimed the province of Ulster from the ruins of the cruel 
wars that had wasted the substance of its former inhabitants, started 
its commerce, built up its manufactures, and made it rich in herds and 
flocks. The colonists flourished during the reigns of James the First, 
Charles the First, during the Commonwealth under Cromwell, and 
under Charles the Second, to such an extent that Macaulay says that, 
in 1688, when King James the Second, after being deposed from the 
throne in England, undertook, with the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland, 
to drive out or kill the Protestants, " Though four fifths of the popu- 
lation of Ireland were Celtic, and Roman Catholics, more than four 
fifths of the projDerty of Ireland belonged to the Protestants," in the 
territory settled by colonists under James the First. Thus we see 
what the Scotch colonists had done for themselves, in about eighty 
years in the abandoned and desolate province of Ulster. 

Now, the reader of this history naturally asks himself what possible 
object had the king of Ireland, as he styles himself, in arming four 
fifths of the inhabitants of his country, to make war on the other one 
fifth, who were peaceable, industrious subjects, unarmed, making no 
threats of war, and who had taken a waste territory, and in eighty 
years had produced out of the soil five times as much as all the other 
inhabitants had accumulated in all the previous history of the country. 
Certainly he could not have thought of the well-being of his subjects 
for a moment. The trouble with him was that these peaceable, thi'if ty, 
law-abiding citizens did not think as he did, nor as the non-productive 
four fifths of his people did, on the subject of religion. The Irish 
nation, so called, that is, the Celts, were called to arms, and the call 
was obeyed with promptitude and enthusiasm — indeed, that is the 
leading characteristic of the Celts to this day. The flag on the castle 
of Dublin was embroidered with the words, " Now or never / Now 
and forever." 

Never, in modern Europe, was there seen such a rising of the 
whole people. The habits of the Celtic peasant were such that he 
made no sacrifice in quitting his potato patch for the camp. He loved 
excitement and adventure. 

The army, which had previously consisted of eight regiments, was 
increased to forty-eight, which were full to overflowing. " The pay of 
the soldier was threepence a day, and only half of this was given in 



52 Address hy Son. James Dinsmoor. 

money. But a far more seductive bait was the prospect of boundless 
license. The garners, the cellars, the flocks, and the herds of the 
minority were abandoned to the majority. Whatever the regular 
troops spared was devoured by bands of marauders, who overran 
almost every barony in the island. Every smith, every carpenter, and 
every cutler was at constant work on guns and blades." 

If any Protestant artisan refused to assist in the manufacture of 
implements which were to be used against the Protestants, he was 
cast into prison. The Protestants not only were not protected by the 
government, but were not permitted to protect themselves. It was 
determined that they should be left unarmed in the midst of an armed 
and hostile population. A day was fixed on which they should bring 
all their swords and firelocks to the parish churches, and it was 
ordered that every Protestant house in which, after that day, any wea- 
pon should be found, shoidd be given up to be sacked by the soldiers. 
Chief Justice Keating, a Protestant, and almost the only Protestant 
who held official position in Ireland, struggled courageously in the 
cause of justice and order, against the united strength of the govern- 
ment and the populace. "Whole counties," he said, "were devasta- 
ted by a rabble resembling the vultures and ravens which follow the 
march of an army." Most of these wretches were not soldiers, and 
acted under no authority known to the law, yet it was, he said, but too 
evident that they were encouraged and screened by some who were 
high in command. How else could it be that a market overt for 
plunder should be held within a short distance of the capital ? Noth- 
ing was more common than for an honest man to lie down rich in 
flocks and herds acquired by the industry of a long life, and to awake 
— a beggar. 

It was to small purpose that Justice Keating attempted, in the 
midst of that fearful anarchy, to uphold the supremacy of the law. 
Priests and military chiefs appeared on the bench for the pui'pose of 
overawing the judge and coimtenancing the robbers. One rufiian 
escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear. Another declared he 
had armed himself in conformity to the orders of his spiritual guide, 
and according to the example of many persons of higher station than 
himself, whom he saw at that moment in court. The chief riches of 
the Protestants consisted in flocks and herds. More than one gentle- 
man possessed twenty thousand sheep and four thousand cattle. The 
freebooters who now overspread the country belonged to a class which 
was accustomed to live on potatoes and sour whey, and which had 
always regarded meat as a luxury reserved for the rich. These men 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 53 

revelled in beef and mutton, as the savage invaders who of old poured 
down from the forests of the north, on Italy, revelled in Mussic and 
Falerian wines. A French ambassador reported to his master that in 
six weeks 50,000 cattle had been slain, and were rotting on the ground 
all over the country. Any estimate which can be made of the value 
of property destroyed during this fearful conflict of races must neces- 
sarily be inexact. The Quakers were neither a very mmierous nor a 
very opulent class. It is supposed that they did not exceed one- 
fif deth part of the Protestant popidation of Ireland. They were non- 
combatants, and undoubtedly better treated than any other Protest- 
ant sect, yet they computed their loss at £100,000. In Leinster, 
Munster, and Connaught, it was impossible for the Protestants, few 
in number, to make any effectual resistance to this terrible outbreak 
of the aboriginal population. 

Many families submitted, delivered up their arms, and thought 
themselves happy in escaping with life. Many resolute and high- 
spii'ited gentlemen and yeomen were determined to perish rather than 
yield. They packed up such valuable property as could be easily 
carried away, burned what they could not remove, and, weU armed and 
mounted, set out for those spots in Ulster which were the strongholds 
of their race and faith. The flower of the Protestant population of 
Munster and Connaught found shelter in Enniskillen. Whatever was 
bravest and most true-hearted in Leinster took the road to London- 
derry. To reduce the Protestants of Ulster to submission before aid 
could arrive from England, was the chief object of Tyrconnel. A 
great force was ordered to move northward, under the command of 
Richard Hamilton. The coxmtry behind him was a waste, and soon 
the country before him became equally desolate, for, at the fame of 
his approach, the colonists burned their furniture, pulled down their 
houses, and retreated northward. The fugitives broke down the 
bridges and burned their ferry boats. The people of Omagh de- 
stroyed their dwellings so utterly that no roof was left to shelter the 
enemy. The people of Cavan emigrated in one body to Enniskillen ; 
all Lisburn fled to Antrim, and, as the foe came nearer, all Lisburn 
and Antrim came pouring into Londonderry. Thirty thousand Prot- 
estants of both sexes, and of every age, were crowded behind the 
earth walls of that city. The siege of Londonderry continued 105 
days. During all this time the walls were closely besieged, and all 
communication with the outside world for supplies of any kind was 
cut off. No preparation for a siege had been made by the Protest- 
ants, nor was it expected by them. The city was destitute of all mill- 



54 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

tary and civil government. No man in the town had a right to com- 
mand any other ; the defences were weak, and provisions scanty. An 
overplus of people had crowded into the place, with no suitahle ac- 
commodations for their ordinary comfort even in times of peace. An 
incensed tyrant and an army of savages were at the gates. Whatever 
an engineer might think of the strength of the ramparts, all that was 
most intelligent, most courageous, most high-spirited, in Leinster and 
Ulster was crowded behind them. The number of men capable of 
bearing arms, within the walls, was 7,000, and the whole world could 
not have fui-nished 7,000 men better fitted to meet such a terrible 
emergency with clear judgment, dauntless valor, and stubborn pa- 
tience. The pecidiar situation in which they had been placed as colo- 
nists in Ireland had developed in them some qualities which in the 
mother country might have remained latent. They had been enabled 
by superior intelligence, a close union, sleepless vigilance, and cool 
intrepidity, to keep in subjection a numerous and hostile population. 
Almost every one of them had been, in some measure, trained both 
to military and civil functions, and they were fitted both to command 
and to obey in any position and in any emergency in which they 
might be placed. Let us examine the situation in which the people 
of Londonderry were placed at this time. 

In 1609 the corporation of London entered into an agreement to 
rebuild Derry, and that the liberties of the city should extend three 
miles every way. " The Society of the Governor and Assistants 
London, of the new plantation in Ulster," was granted the towns of 
Derry and Coleraine, with 4,000 acres, besides bog and mountain, at 
Derry, and 3,000 acres at Coleraine, and the fisheries and ferries of 
the Foyle and Bann. The society was to maintain a garrison in Cul- 
more Castle forever, and to fortify and enclose Derry (henceforth to 
be called Londonderry) with stone walls. By the same charter the 
citizens of Londonderry were incorporated by the name, " The Mayor 
Commonalty and Citizens," and had the power to appoint two sheriffs 
of the city and county, and to send two members to the Irish parlia- 
ment. The walls of Derry were laid out and built at a cost of neai-ly 
£90,000. A dry ditch eight feet deep and thirty feet broad ran from, 
the west end along the south to the water's edge, which cost, vrith 
other fortifications, £2,300. Five hundred and fifty-eight pounds 
was spent for arms, £40 for ordnance, and £14,000 for building 111 
houses, all defrayed by the city of London. In 1617, Mathias Spring- 
ham, a Londoner, at his own expense, erected the original free school 
house. Ireland was at that time a kingdom, dependent on the crown 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 55 

of England, and a part of the royal inheritance, and, therefore, must 
follow its fate, which it could not decline without ruin to its own 
interest. Now, King James having abdicated the throne of England, 
William the Third being in possession of it by the consent of the 
parliament of England, was de facto king of England and Ireland, 
and it was the duty of Protestants in Ulster to be subject to the 
crown of England. No wonder that the peaceable, industrious, thrifty, 
Ulster men should refuse to acknowledge as their sovereign James the 
Second, who had lost the throne of England by his own stupidity. 
The men of Londonderry knew that they were right, and, as Shake- 
speare says, 

" Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just ; 
And he but naked, though locked up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is oppressed." 

The situation of the English government at this time, it will be re- 
membered, was very trying. James the Second had just been deposed, 
and William the Third, Prince of Orange, had come over from Hol- 
land, and had been recognized by the parliament as king. King 
James, with the aid of the king of France, had gone into Ireland, and 
in person taken command of the Catholics, with the hope of rallying 
all the Catholics in the kingdom to his support, and driving the Prince 
of Orange out. WiUiam had not yet got full hold of the lines in the 
then, to him, new covmtry, and the people of England had been so 
demoraUzed with the conduct of the deposed king, with fresh memory 
of the execution of Charles the First, and the Commonwealth of Crom- 
well, that a painful uncertainty prevailed in the minds of the people 
as to Avhat would be done by the new made king. 

There was no disposition on the part of the House of Commons to 
let the brave people of Londonderry and Enniskillen be butchered or 
starved by the one hundred thousand at the command of James the 
Second. An expedition, which was thought to be sufficient for the 
relief of Londonderry, was dispatched from Liverpool under the com- 
mand of Kirk. On the 16th of May, Kirk's troops embarked, but he 
did not reach Londonderry till the evening of the 31st of July. The 
true condition of the garrison can be learned by the account given in 
July. 

" The condition of the city was, hour by hour, becoming more fright- 
ful ; the number of the people had been thinned more by famine and 
disease than by the fire of the enemy. Yet the fire of the enemy was 
as constant as ever. Every attack was still repelled by the besieged, 



56 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

but the fighting men were so much exhausted that they could scarcely 
keep their feet. A very small quantity of grain remained, and was 
doled out by mouthfuls. The stock of salted liides was considerable, 
and by gnawing them the garrison ap}3eased the rage of hunger. 
Nine horses were still alive, but barely alive. They were so lean 
that little meat was to be found on their bones. It was, however, de- 
termined to slaughter them for food. The people perished so fast 
that it was impossible for the survivors to perform the rites of sepul- 
ture, and almost every cellar contained an unburied dead body. And 
yet in this extremity the cry was ' No sui'vender,'' and it was no slight 
aggravation of the suffering of the garrison that all this time the Eng- 
lish ships, sent for their relief in May, were in Lough Foyle, the com- 
mander, Kirk, not having courage and tact enough to sail past the 
enemy's batteries, on the banks of the Foyle, and break through the 
boom that had been placed in it to prevent the landing of supplies in 
Londonderry. At the last he received from England peremptory 
orders to relieve Londonderry, and he set about obeying the order. 
Among tlie merchant ships that had come under his convoy, was one 
called Montjoy, con.manded by Micajah Browning, a native of Lon- 
donderry, which had a cargo of provisions for the starving garrison. 
He had repeatedly remonstrated against the inaction of the fleet, and 
now eagerly volunteered to take the first risk of succoring his fellow- 
citizens, and his offer was accepted. Andrew Douglas, master of the 
Phoenix that had on board a great quantity of meal from Scotland, 
was willing to share the danger and the honor. 

" The two merchantmen were escorted by the Dartmouth, frig- 
ate of thirty-six gmns, commanded by Capt. John Leake. It was 
the 30th of July. The sun had just set. The evening sermon in the 
cathedral was over, and the heart-broken congregation had just sepa- 
rated, when the sentinels on the tower espied the sails of three vessels 
coming up the Foyle. Soon there was a stir in the Irish camp. The 
besiegers were on the alert for miles along both shores. The ships 
were in extreme peril, for the river was low, and the channel ran 
near the left bank, where the headquarters of the enemy had been 
fi:xed, and Avhere the batteries were the most numerous." 

" Leake performed his duty with a skill and spirit worthy of his 
noble profession, exposing his frigate to cover the merchantmen, and 
using his guns with great effect. At length the little squadron came 
to the place of peril. The Montjoy took the lead, and went right at 
the boom. The huge barricade cracked and gave way, but the shock 
was so great that the Montjoy rebounded and stuck fast in the mud. 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 57 

A yell of triumph rose from the banks ; the Irish rushed to their 
boats, and were prepared to board, but the Dartmouth poured on 
them a well-directed broadside, which threw them into disorder. 
Just then the Phoenix dashed at the breach which the Montjoy had 
made, and was in a moment within the fence. Meantime the tide was 
rising fast ; the Montjoy began to move, and soon passed safe through 
the broken stakes and floating spars. But her brave master was no 
more. A shot from one of the batteries had struck him, and he died 
the most enviable of all deaths, in sight of the city of his birth, of his 
home, which had just been saved by his courage and self-devotion 
from the most frightful form of destruction. The night had closed 
in before the conflict at the boom began, but the flash of the guns was 
seen and the noise heard by the lean and ghostly multitude that cov- 
ered the walls of the city. When the Montjoy grounded, and the 
shout of triumph rose from the Irish on both banks of the river, the 
hearts of the besieged sank within them. One who endured the un- 
utterable anguish of that moment, has told us that they looked fear- 
fully livid in each other's eyes. 

" It was 10 o'clock before the ship arrived at the quay. The whole 
population able to move was there to welcome them ; a screen made of 
casks filled with earth was hastily thrown up to protect the landing 
place from the batteries on the other side of the river, and then the 
work of unloading began. First were rolled on shore barrels which 
contained six thousand bushels of meal. Then came great cheeses, 
casks of beef, flitches of bacon, kegs of butter, sacks of pease and bis- 
cuit, and ankers of brandy. 

" A few hours before this, half a pound of tallow and three quarters 
of a pound of salted hides had been weighed out, with scrupulous care, 
to every fighting man in the garrison. The ration that each now 
received was three pounds of flour, two pounds of beef, and a pint of 
pease. The Irish guns roared all night, and all night the bells of the 
rescued city answered them with peals of joyous defiance. 

" Through the whole of July 31st the batteries of the besiegers 
continued to play, but soon after sunset flames were seen arising from 
all their camps, and on the morning of the first of August, a line of 
smoking ruins marked the site they had lately occupied, and far o£E 
was seen the long column of pikes and standards, retreating up the 
left bank of the Foyle. Thus ended the siege of Londonderry. Of 
the seven thousand effective men in the garrison when the siege began, 
oidy about three thousand remained. The loss of the besiegers is not 
known." 



58 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

, Thus we see that the little city of Londonderry in Ireland, then a 
dependency of the crown of England — fortified not by military skill, 
nor naval armaments, but by heroic, Protestant, Christian hearts, — 
devoted to the cause of religious freedom, became the arena upon 
which the fate of the liberties, not only of Great Britain but of 
America, was to be decided. The defence of Londonderry, by 
arresting the onward march of King James toward Scotland, whither 
it was his intention to go, after the Protestants of Ulster had been 
subdued, contributed largely to his ultimate overthrow, the establish- 
ment of the revolution which secured William and Mary on the 
throne of England, and gave Protestantism to Great Britain. 

So important did King William and the British Parliament con- 
sider this defence, and so highly did they appreciate the heroic valor, 
endurance, and moral worth of the defenders, that in addition to all 
other acknowledgments, an act was passed exempting from taxation 
throughout the British dominions, all who had borne arms in that city 
during the siege. Of this act, those of the defenders who settled in Lon- 
donderry, N. H., availed themselves until the American Revolution ; and 
tlieir farms were marked exempt on the assessment rolls. From the 
loins of the heroes of Londonderry sprang our fathers. Of the six- 
teen families that first settled in our town when it was called Lon- 
derry, James McKeen, John Barnet, James Anderson, Randal Alex- 
ander, James Clark, James Nesmith, John Stuart, John Morrison, 
Archibald Clendenin, Samuel Allison, by themselves or their immedi- 
ate descendants, helped to people that part of Londonderry of which 
our town of Windham was made. The emigration of the Scotch- 
Irish to America did not proceed entirely from the siege of London- 
derry, and the war of James the Second. For, as early as 1631, hav- 
ing heard of the success of the Independents, who had settled at 
Plymouth eleven years before, and another settlement at Salem, the 
Presbyterians of Ulster, anxious to escape, if possible, from the injus- 
tice of the perfidious Charles the First, whose reign bad just com- 
menced, began to make preparations to remove to America. Agents 
were appointed who proceeded to London to procure a passage to New 
England. Soon after this they sent over an agent who pitched upon 
a tract of land near the mouth of the Merrimack whither they 
intended to transport themselves, and in pursuance of this, in 1636, 
the Eagle Wing, a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons burthen, 
sailed from Loch Fergus with one hundred and forty emigrant pas- 
sengers, bound for New England, following directly in the track of 
the Mayflower. Four of her passengers were distinguished Pres- 



Address by Hon. James Ditismoor. 59 

byterian preachers, Blair, Livingston, Hamilton, and McClelland. 
Her passengers were to have settled on the Merrimack river, but the 
vessel encountered storms off the coast, and was so badly damaged 
that the master felt it unsafe to cross the ocean, and put back into 
the same harbor. " This company of men," Dr. Foote says, " were 
subsequently the efficient agents in the hands of God of embodying 
the Presbyterianism in Ireland, of spreading their principles far and 
wide, and marshaling congregation after congregation, whose industry 
made Ulster blossom as the rose." " It was better," says he, " that 
God's wise providence sent them back to Ireland and shut them up to 
their work, and it was best of all that they laid the foundation of that 
church which may claim to be the mother of the American Presby- 
terian church." And while that attempt of the Ulster men, made in 
1636, was unsuccessful, yet it is more than probable that it was the 
cause of our ancestors coming to Londonderry nearly a century after- 
wards. For we find them in 1718, when they landed, immediately 
inquiring for lands on the Merrimack river. Another well authenti- 
cated fact in this connection deserves oiu' consideration, as a century 
and a half stone, to be looked at, to see whether, in a humanitarian 
view, we of this age and generation have advanced or retrograded 
since 1718. No less than five vessels of emigrants from Ulster 
arrived on the coast of New England, but, forbidden to land at Boston, 
the immigrants moved up the Kennebec and landed. But the winter 
of 1718-19 being one of unusual severity, the great majority of these 
settlers left the Kennebec and went overland to Pennsylvania, and 
settled in Northampton county. My authority did not state positively 
why the Ulster people were not permitted to land in Boston harbor, 
but intimates that it was because they were not Pm'itans. 

We know that good Roger Williams was driven out of Massachu- 
setts, and with like reason good Presbyterians from Ulster might not 
have been permitted to land. This act, apparently discreditable to 
the authorities of Boston in 1718, I cannot recite without naming in 
the same connection the fact, as given by Willis in his History of 
Portland, that in the autumn of 1718, a vessel arrived in the harbor 
with twenty families of emigrants from Ireland. They were rigid 
Presbyterians. They suffered severely in the winter from the failure 
of their provisions. The inhabitants, not having either food or shelter 
for so large an increase of poi3ulation, petitioned the General Court at 
Boston for relief, and on this application the General Court ordered 
that one hundred bushels of meal be allowed and paid out of the 
treasury for the poor Irish people mentioned in the petition. It is 



60 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

subjoined, in a note to this account, that James McKeen, grandfather 
of the first president of Bowdoin College, was of this company and the 
agent who selected the land on which they settled. The latter facts 
make it evident that our ancestors were aided in their settlement by 
the Great and General Court of Massachusetts. 

And while it is not entirely improbable that our ancestors were in 
one of those five vessels that were turned down to Casco bay to find 
a harbor, yet I would prefer to think that in lieu of its being done by 
the authority of the town it was by some one man, for as Shakespeare 
says : — 

" Proud man — 

Drest in a little brief authority, 

Most ignorant of what he' s most assured, 

His glassy essence, like an angry ape, 

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 

As make the angels weep." 

What New England lost by the turning away of those five vessels, 
with their living freight, of sturdy, God-fearing Presbyterians from 
Ulster, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, nay the whole coun- 
try and the world at large, gained. Any one who studies the history 
of the Scotch-Irish race will be forced to believe that in the providence 
of God there are no accidents. 

The skilled metalurgist knows that it is not only necessary to select 
the desired metal with care but it is as necessary to submit it to fer- 
vent heat, to expel the dross and slag, and when the pure metal 
pours from the furnace the fitting mould must be ready to receive it 
and give the molten mass form and comeliness ; and if the material 
is designed to receive a polish it must be taken from the mould and 
with its kindred pieces placed in a revolving cylinder and kept 
rev9lving till, by continual contact, the casting is scoured and made 
ready for the burnisher. Our ancestors were selected in Scotland, 
the best man-metal the world ever exhibited. They were molten by 
the wars and persecutions, foreign and domestic, and by the preach- 
ing of John Knox and his coadjutors moulded into Presbyterians, all 
I'ight, stiff, and strong. But they must be scoured before they can 
receive the polish and grace of which they are susceptible. Over in 
the desolate, poverty-stricken, war-wasted, God-forsaken, priest-ridden, 
Ireland is just the place to scour the castings ; and there they went in 
God's providence. 

One hundred years of scouring in Ireland made a race of men fit 
for transjjlanting to America, of whose superiors history has as yet 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 61 

made no record. When the report from the first emigrants to 
America reached their friends in Ulster, shipload after shipload 
followed in quick succession and settled in the immediate vicinity, if 
possible, of their predecessors. 

So we find that the sixteen families that on the 11th of April, 1719, 
selected the common field on the north side of the brook as the first 
settlement in Londonderry, on the 23d of September of the same 
year had increased by immigration from Ulster to seventy families, 
and had petitioned the General Court of New Hampshire for corporate 
existence as a " township." There was no Lord Baltimore, no William 
Penn, no City of London, nor any patron behind this colony to give it 
aid, place, or power. 

Our fathers brought with them and introduced into North America 
as an article of diet, the potato, called, and known from that day to 
this, the Irish potato, — the Scotch being left o£E for short, I suppose ; 
as it is well known that the potato was first found by Sir Francis 
Drake in South America and taken by him to England. 

An examination of the town charter of Londonderry shows the first 
and only evidence I ever saw of an inflation of the currency by the 
potato. The charter provides, among other things, — " The same men 
and inhabitants, rendering and paying for the same to us, and to our 
successors, or to such officers as should be appointed to receive the 
same, the annual quit-rent of one peck of potatoes, on the first day of 
October yearly, forever.'''' This shows that the charter was drawn by 
an Ulster man. It contains the element of thrift and success in life. 
They wanted to pay their honest debts, and in something they had to 
seU. 

There is another evidence that it was drawn by one of our ances- 
tors. It contains the unique provision that " on every Wednesday 
forever, they may hold, keep, and enjoy a market for the buying and 
selling of goods, wares, and merchandise, and divers kinds of creat- 
ures, endowed with the usual kinds of privileges, profits, and immun- 
ities, as other market towns fully hold, possess, and enjoy ; and two 
fairs annually forever, the first to be held and kept within said town 
on the 8th day of November next, and so annually forever. The other 
on the 8th day of May in like manner. Provided, That if either of 
those days falls on the Lord's day, then said fair shall be held on the 
day following." Our fathers were linen drapers. They brought over 
to this country the spinning-wheel and the loom. They were skilled 
in weaving linen. The apprentice boys who shut and locked the gates 
of Londonderry, just as the besieging soldiers were about to enter the 



62 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

city, and as Macaulay says " deserved to have their names preserved 
in letters of gold," were apprentices to the weavers of linen. 

With an eye to the sale of their products of the loom, they provided 
by legislative enactment for a market day every week and two fairs 
for a similar purpose. The iinen manufactured by the early settlers 
in Londonderry and Windham had an extensive reputation for qual- 
ity, and to prevent its coming into competition with an inferior arti- 
cle, foreign or domestic, they had inspectors of linen appointed to ex- 
amine, seal, and stamp the Londonderry linen, and give the maker 
a certificate of its genuineness. And Thomas Nesmith, to whose 
thoughtful generosity the citizens of our town are largely indebted for 
their library, told me that he got his financial start in life by peddling 
the linen cloth and thread made then by the women of Windham and 
Derry. 

It is impossible to disconnect Londonderry from Windham, when 
speaking of the early history of our town. We were part and parcel 
of the Londonderry of that day, and its history is part of 0U7' liistory. 
To such an extent had Londonderry increased in population in the 
first eighteen years of its corporate existence, that forty-nine men liv- 
ing in the southerly part of said town united in a petition to the Gen- 
eral Court of the province of New Hampshire for a " town charter." 
The draft of the petition is scholarly and business-like, and if any one 
was preparing a book of precedents for similar petitions he could not 
do better than adopt that. 

The charter contains a provision characteristic of om- ancestors, and 
was tmdoubtedly drawn by them. I desire to call my friends' atten- 
tion to that proviso. It is of the essence of the grant, and without 
the observance of it a declaration of forfeiture may some day be de- 
clared, and the corporate existence of our good old town be wiped out. 
The whole grant hangs on the last clause, — '■'■Provided, That the 
inhabitants of said Parish shall from time to time provide, maintain, 
and support an orthodox minister of the gospel among them." Daniel 
Webster, in his great argument in the Girard will case, said : " There 
can be no republican form of government maintained in any country 
without morality, and there can be no morality maintained without 
Christianity." Our fathers intended that when Windham ceased to 
be inhabited by a Cliristian people it should cease to be. Of the min- 
isters who, from time to time, preached the gospel to the people in 
pursuance of the provisions of the charter, I think naught but good 
can be said. The Rev. Simon WilUams, who was settled over the 
parish in 1766, was, as I have been told by some of those who fitted 



Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 63 

for college under his tuition, not only a most useful minister, but a fine 
scholar and a most apt instructor. Soon after his ordination, he en- 
gaged in teaching the classics and higher mathematics, fitting young 
men for college. That was before Dartmouth College was founded, 
and before the organization of the academies which subsequently did 
so much for education in New England. Our quondam senior part- 
ner, Derry, since famous for her academies, had not at that time any. 
Samuel Burnham, who started the first classical school, which eventu- 
ated in Pinkerton Academy, began his school in 1796. Mr. Williams 
gathered around him not only the smart boys of Windham, but also 
those of Londonderry and the neighboring towns. Joseph McKeen, 
the grandson of Justice McKeen, the pioneer of the first sixteen fam- 
ilies in the Londonderry settlement, not only fitted for college with 
Mr. Williams, but came back after graduating, and studied divinity 
with him. 

It was certainly a high compliment that the future president of 
Bowdoin College paid Mr. Williams, to come back from college and 
take another preparatory course with the scholar who, single handed 
and alone, in a country town, remote from libraries and from cities, 
had taught him the rudiments of a then coUege education. Simon 
Williams was no ordinary man. The incidents of his early life, told 
by our most pains-taking and reliable historian, Leonard A. Mor- 
rison, show that he possessed most winning manners and that tact 
which commands success. 

He was born in the province of Leicester, Ireland, in 1729, and 
when sixteen years of age, became engaged to be married to a young 
lady whose parents forbade the banns. Nothing daunted by this, 
they both ran away to England, and, boylike, he laid his case in per- 
son before King George the Second. The king became interested in 
the loving couple, educated them for four years, then married them 
in London, and sent them to the island of St. Thomas, in the West 
Indies, where Mr. Williams taught for several years, then removed to 
Philadelphia, and taught there, and then afterwards was so connected 
with Princeton College as to take a degree from that institution. 

Of the Windham students, whose names occur to me, and all of 
whom I knew as a boy knows men whom he sees and hears converse, 
were Samuel Armour, Samuel Dinsmoor, the elder governor. Col. Silas 
Dinsmoor, superintendent of the Cherokee Indians under the appoint- 
ment of President Washington, and Dr. John Park. I recollect the 
anecdote Col. Silas used to tell connecting Mr. Williams with the 
doctor. Dr. John Park was said to be, in his day, a literary prodigy. 



64 Address hy Son. James Dinsmoor. 

He took to books as a duck takes to water. It was the practice of 
Mr. Williams to oiDen the exercises of school in the morning with 
prayer, and no uncommon occurrence to particularize any student 
whom he thought specially needed Divine assistance. Dr. J. was the 
youngest in the school ; the distance he had to walk to reach the 
school was great, and the facility with which he acquired the les- 
sons was so great that less absolute attendance on school by him 
was necessary than with the rest of his class. But punctuality was 
one of the cardinal virtues with Parson Williams, and he prayed one 
morning for poor little Johnnie Park, who comes to school one day 
and stays at home the next, thinking to keep up with his class. 

He was succeeded in the ministry by Mr. Harris, who kept up the 
good old Scotch-Irish Presbyterian custom of calling his people to- 
gether in neighborhoods on week days for religious conversation and 
instruction, and who was in the habit of giving out on the Sabbath 
the names of the families he intended to visit during the ensuing 
week. On one occasion, when he had exchanged with a neighboring 
minister, the list of families to be announced was read by the latter, 
and the mispronunciation of the name Hughes fixed in my mind the 
fact of Mr. Harris visiting his flock. He said Mr. Harris would visit 
the family of Mr. Barnet Huge, Mr. John Huge, and Mr. Huge 
Wilson. 

It will be kept in mind that Mr. Harris's flock embraced the whole 
town, and they aU attended meeting on the Sabbath, — men, women, 
and children. There was no hunting or fisliing in Windham on the 
Sabbath, in his day, unless some outside barbarian broke into the 
town for that purpose. He lost the command of his vocal powers to 
such an extent that he could not be heard by his audience, and his 
peojjle waited on him a year or more with the hope that the great 
restorer, Time, would enable him to resmne his duties. The deacons 
used to take turns in reading sermons when it was not possible to get 
an Andover student, or some member of the Presbytery did not volun- 
. teer to preach for them. I remember that Mr. Bradford, of New Bos- 
ton, came and preached one bright summer day. His text was taken 
from that matchless composition, the book of Job : " Hast thou an arm 
like God, and canst thou thunder with a voice like Him ? " And 
when he preached, people might well listen, for they must listen. 

The sainted Calvin Cutler succeeded Mr. Harris. He was a think- 
ing, studious, aggressive man, and active in the cause of temperance. 
He made it his practice to visit every school in town, and had the 
best conducted and most intelligent Sunday school it was ever my 



Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 65 

pleasure to see. As early as 1831 he preached on Fast day an anti- 
slavery sermon from this text : " The days of ignorance God winked 
at, but now He commands aU men to repent." The congregation in 
Windham was very critical ; they knew a good sermon when they 
heard it. The daily newspajjer had not at that time absorbed the at- 
tention of the people. No man then could buy his opinions on almost 
every subject, as he can now, for two cents. Each man had to make 
his own, and the critical process of doing this made him a careful hearer 
of the sermon. I recollect an incident of our neighbor, Jonathan 
Parker, who, while not a member of Mr. Cutler's church, was a most 
constant attendant on his preaching, and, while he never had the ad- 
vantage of a scholastic education, few men excelled him in good sense. 
He had occasion to visit a brother who resided in Reading, spent the 
Sabbath there, and went to meeting with him. On his return home, 
he came into our house, and was speaking of his visit to his native 
town ; and, among other things related, he spoke of the preaching, 
and wound up by saying, " I asked Sam if he paid for such preaching 
as that." His mental model was, no doubt, Mr. Cutler. 

Rev. Loren Thayer, the successor of Mr. Cutler, I knew slightly in 
college. He was two years my senior, and his college life justified 
his selection, as filhng the provisions of the " Town Charter." I 
cannot forbear to sjjeak of my classmate, Nathaniel Hills. He 
worked on the home farm, till he was nineteen years old, most labori- 
ously, mth his brothers. I remember how his mother filled her pew 
in church with her family. The boys were hard worked through the 
week, and nature would assert her demands for rest and sleep on the 
Sabbath, but she brought her boys to meeting to listen to what the 
minister said, and if one was overcome with sleep, she had him get 
up and stand, so that he could hear. All the way through life Nathan- 
iel adhered to the same inflexible rule with himself. His stern and 
unyielding observance of duty, and his gentle disposition fitted him 
for the position of teacher. I recollect his telling me, when I visited 
him in 1875, that in the course of his thirty-four years of teaching 
he had never been absent one half day, and only once had been tardy, 
and that was occasioned by an accident to the cars. 

I have thought that Samuel Armour was not duly appreciated by 
his fellow-townsmen ; but of this, being only a boy when my observa- 
tions were made, and he a man, past the prime of life, perhajis I was 
wrong in my estimate ; for I find by the record that he was town clerk 
seventeen years, a selectman six years, represented the town in the 
legislature fifteen years, was the standing justice of the peace, and an 
5 



66 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

unobtrusive man, whose opinion was sought and taken by his fellow- 
townsmen, — as a balance wheel is used to regulate the motion of 
machinery. He was a man of commanding presence, and of exem- 
plary manners. I recollect, when the church choir had dwindled to 
small proportions, after the benediction had been pronounced, stand- 
ing in his pew, he asked all those interested in having good music in 
the church, to stop and take measures to secure a teacher of music. 
The result was that Mr. Griffin from abroad was hired to come and 
teach a singing school for a month, every day and evening. A new 
singing book was obtained, the singing talent of the whole town was 
called out, and that most necessary accompaniment received such an 
accession of home talent that it was a fitting accompaniment to the 
preaching of Mr. Cutler. 

I should do the occasion, the town, and myself an injustice if I did 
not speak of that most worthy yet extinct famUy, that succeeded Es- 
quire Armour on liis farm in the range. Jacob Abbot had been a 
minister at Hampton Falls, but resigned his pastoral charge there in 
1826, and purchased what was then the best equipped farm in that 
stUl beautiful range. He brought with him seven daughters and three 
sons, and engaged in farming. The whole family engaged in every 
good word and work in the town. Their deeds of charity and kind- 
ness to the sick and distressed were innumerable, and, although Mr. 
Abbot had been a Unitarian minister in his settlement at Hampton 
Falls, he and his family attended the meeting at Windham till the 
senseless vote of the town was taken, in 1833, which resulted in the 
Presbyterian church vacating the old meeting-house ; after which Mr. 
Abbot (who had in no manner aided the crusade against the Presby- 
terians) occasionally preached in the old church, and on the day of 
his death had preached there. He had walked down to the pond, in 
connection with some of his neighbors, in the morning, and had been 
rowed over that, and walked thence to the meeting-house. At the 
close of the afternoon service, in attempting to return by the same 
means, the boat, which was old and unsafe, filled with water, and he 
and Capt. John Dinsmoor were drowned. His daughters all married 
gentlemen out of the town, and each reflected credit on their parents 
and the town. Ebenezer, one son, married the only daughter of Col. 
Jacob Nesmith, and was an estimable citizen on the farm till his 
death, when the farm passed out of the family name. George J., a 
brother, graduated at Harvard College, and was induced by Abbot 
Lawrence of Boston, then a representative in Congress, to go to Wash- 
ington and establish a private school, which he continued a number of 



Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 67 

years. He was afterward employed as consular correspondent in the 
department of state, and was private secretary of Daniel Webster and 
with him at liis death at Marshfield. Lucy, the youngest daughter, 
was my most excellent assistant in Westford Academy, and afterward 
married one of my predecessors in that institution, and settled in 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

One of the best representative business men of Windham was Col. 
Thomas Nesmith. He began his mercantile career when eighteen 
years of age, assisting his mother in conducting the business left by 
the sudden death of his father, and connected with it the sale of the 
linen made by the industrious mothers and daughters of that neigh- 
borhood. His younger brother, Jolm, went to Haverhill, and served 
an apprenticeship with John Dow. On the expiration of his appren- 
ticeship, John had the business education, but it took cash to buy 
goods and start in business. John Nesmith was one of the brainiest 
men Windham ever produced in all financial matters. He soon laid 
before Thomas, who had saved six thousand dollars, a scheme that 
promised well for both, to which Thomas assented, and they engaged 
in general merchandise in Windham. This place was not sufficient 
to occupy the active mind of John long, and he soon opened another 
store at Derry Lower Village, as it was called. He soon after induced 
a Derry man to buy out the stock at Windham, and, leaving a younger 
brother to look after affairs at Derry, John and Thomas opened a 
wholesale dry goods store on Pine street, New York. 

That was before the days of railroads, and steamboats, and I recol- 
lect that after the brothers had got started in New York, their sister, 
Lucy, who was my schoolmistress, in order to visit her brothers in 
the metropolis of America, went to Boston, took passage in a coasting 
vessel, and reached New York in safety at the expiration of nine days, 
as she wrote home. The two brothers met with that success in Pine 
street that Scotch-Irish tact and pluck usually have brought. John 
induced a younger brother and a cousin or two to go there and take an 
interest with them, and he looked out for a new field of adventure. 

About this time Boston capital was investing in manufacturing in 
Lowell, and the Livermore estate in Tewksbury was for sale, which 
caught the eye of John as an investment promising well in the future, 
and, in connection with Thomas, he bought it. Thomas was always 
a gentleman of elegant leisure, who never troubled himself to look up 
an investment for his money, but kept ready to invest when a good 
one offered. Up to this time he had been popular with the unmar- 
ried people in Windham and Derry, and had tastefully performed the 



68 Address by Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

delicate duties of best man at more weddings in those towns than any- 
other ten men that could be found, but had never been in a position 
to need the return of a similar favor. But this summer, on one of 
his annual visits to Windham and Derry, he was interested in making 
himself agreeable to Miss Fay, one of the teachers in the Female 
seminary in Derry. This was a favorable time for his brother John 
to engage him to join in the purchase of the Livermore property, on 
the east bank of Concord river, and build with him a double house, 
for the home of each, a proposition to which he readily assented, and, 
having laid out a plat of ground for a park, they erected a modest 
house of wood, in which they both resided for some years. Each 
brother afterward built a residence commensurate with the wants of 
their growing families, commanding a view of the plateau laid out by 
them for a park. Both brothers were averse to mere sbow, and, as 
long as they lived, practiced the same economy which had been one 
of the secrets of tlieir success in life. 

Let me take you all into the old meeting-house, as it was in its 
pahny days, when I was a boy. We will enter, if you please, by the 
west door. In the raised wall-pew at your left sat John Hemphill, 
massive in make-up, with a brogue worthy of his ancestry, and when 
the choir in the gallery struck a tune with melodious chords, he would 
join in a majestic bass fit for a chorus of the skies. Next came the 
Revolutionary hero, David Campbell, who limped through life, by rea- 
son of the wound received in the army, with his son David, my Sun- 
day school teacher, a most excellent man. Next came Uncle Robert 
Dinsmoor, "the rustic bard," who was always in his place, and never 
failed to add his melodious tenor to the efforts of the choir. Next 
came the minister's family pew, and then the pulpit. On the east 
side of the pulpit sat Deacon Silas Moore, and across the aisle, in the 
body pews, sat Mrs. Hills and her family. In the rear of her sat 
Capt. Isaac Cochran, and by his side sat Esquire Armour. Next 
them, in a wall pew, sat Capt. McCreary, and so many others beyond 
the reach of my vision, till you come to the wall pew of Capt. John 
Campbell, with his tall family. Next came the Noyeses and the Ha- 
zeltines, and then the front door. 

Moving past the door, going west, came Joseph Clyde, whose flow- 
ing gray locks and wide-skirted blue coat gave him a majestic mien. 
Next came John Hughes and Uncle John Dinsmoor ; then, at the 
corner, Capt. William Campbell, with his bouncing family of twelve. 
Next was the pew owned by my father and our cousin, William Dins- 
moor. And, now, we are ready to go out at the same door we came 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 69 

in, but wait a moment. Of the many fine families that occupied the 
body of the house were the Deacons John, James, and William Da 
vidson, all of them model men in all the walks of life. Robert 
Campbell, too, who, in the drowsy weather of summer, used to stand 
in sermon time, and shake off the otherwise overpowering sleep. Near 
him the Nesmiths sat, and still farther on Jeremiah and Christopher 
Morrison, with their two sisters of queenly beauty. But I must stay 
in this rehearsal, lest my failure of memory of names and faces of 
more than half a century ago should seemingly compel me, by failure to 
mention all, to make invidious distinctions, when all deserved mention. 

Of the doctors that I knew, J. W. Perkins was the first in my day. 
I certainly have occasion to speak well of him, for in the winter of 
1827 he attended me when sick with lung fever, fed me on calomel, 
and with most scrupulous care forbade my tasting cold water. But 
by careful nursing and the kindness of friends and neighbors, I came 
out in the spring with every tooth in my head loose — salivated and 
saved, as I suppose the doctor thought. He was a good citizen, and 
subsequently abandoned his profession for that of divinity. 

About the time Dr. Perkins left the town, Dr. Simpson moved in. 
He was a native of the town, but had been absent since boyhood. He 
was a man of great push and vigor, had by his own industry earned 
the means of obtaining his education and profession, and had prac- 
ticed some years before locating in our town. He was a skilful sur- 
geon and physician, and the practice in the town was not equal to the 
mental demands of the doctor on his own powers. He purchased a farm 
over in the range, and united farming with his practice of medicine. 

A few years after, he moved to Lowell, where he engaged in financial 
enterprises congenial to his tastes. Among them was that of building 
the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. He was careless of 
his dress and personal appearance, and for years, in cold weather, his 
outer garment was a blue camlet coat. Time, which rejuvenates the 
field and the forest every spring, had an opposite effect on the doc- 
tor's coat, and it continued in the " sear and yellow leaf " all the year 
round. At one of the meetings of tlie board of directors of the road, 
at Plymouth, his associates on the board concluded that a well-dressed 
board of directors would enhance the value of their railroad bonds, in 
the market of Boston, where proverbially well-dressed men congregate, 
and they suggested to the landlord at the Plymouth House, that if 
some one of his guests should, by mistake, take the doctor's camlet 
coat, they would pay for a new coat that would fit the doctor's person. 
The hint to the landlord was sufficient, and in the night the old coat 



70 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

mysteriously disappeared. An ample apology and a new coat from 
the landlord satisfied the doctor that a mistake, if not a misfit, had 
been made, and his associates paid the biU. He has passed away. I 
know the old Latin maxim, "Z)e mortuis nil nisi honum" but I can- 
not be true to history without laying at his door the blame for depriv- 
ing the Presbyterian church of the use of the old meeting-house. I 
was a boy in the gallery, and heard him discuss the right of the town 
to the meeting-house, and saw him marshal his hosts that cast the ma- 
jority vote, which resulted in the church leaving the house as a place 
of worship. True, the town, as such, built the house, in pursuance of 
its charter and the law of the state, but it had sold the pews inside, 
and deeded them to the purchasers, who had held possession some 
thirty-five years, consecutively. Now, for a part owner of the out- 
side of the house to drive out his co-tenant in the walls, and who 
owned the entirety of the inside, is an anomaly in law. A few days 
after the annual town-meeting liiy guardian took me away to school, 
and I neither saw nor heard of the subsequent acts of the church in 
going out of the meeting-house, but, at the close of that year, when I 
returned, I found the meeting-house empty on the Sabbath, and Mr. 
Cutler preaching in Bartley hall, a most unsuitable place, which soon 
was abandoned for the commodious house which has ever since been 
used as a place of worship by the Presbyterian church. 

Of the many men who have honored their native town by well-spent 
lives, Robert Dinsmoor, " the rustic bard," especially deserves men- 
tion. He was one of the elders of the Presbyterian church for fifty 
years, and for the greater part of that time was clerk of the session. 
He was at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered to Gates, the turn- 
ing-point in the Revolutionary war. As a result of that battle, France 
acknowledged the government of the united colonies as an indepen- 
dent nation. He was then twenty years old, and volunteered, as 
most of the New Hampshire soldiers did, to go under General John 
Stark, of Londonderry. He learned to write on birch bark, as did 
all his brothers, and, although he had the benefit of some attendance on 
Parson Williams's school, yet, owing to the demands of his father for 
his labor on the land, he being the eldest son of the family and some 
years older than his next oldest brother, it was not jiossible for him to 
be spared to get an education. Books, in that day, were few and ex- 
pensive, and he was poor, as the whole country then was. He was a 
most genial and affable man, had a wide circle of acquaintances, for 
his day, and when we call to mind the fact that he had a family of 
eleven children to rear, with no income save what could be forced 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 71 

from the reluctant soil of his farm, and the sale of wood cut there- 
from, and was called upon hy his friends, upon any occasion, for a 
poetic composition, which took his time from the farm, and yielded 
no compensation except the mental pleasure of composition, we mar- 
vel at what he accomplished. He might have said, as did Pope, 

" While still a youth, as yet unknown to fame, 
I wrote in numbers, for the numbers came." 

He was a man of massive build, had a most musical voice, and a 
ready command of language. 

He has been called by some who have assumed to criticise his poetic 
comjDosition, an imitator of Burns. He was the imitator of no one. 
He wrote in the Scotch dialect, as he had a right to do. It was the 
dialect of the common ancestors of both. It was the mother tongue 
of each. 

It is a well known aphorism that great exigencies make great men. 
It is equally true that the training of the mothers has made the heroes 
of the world. When the Spartan mother gave the shield to her son 
as he went into battle, with the injimction "return with this 
or on it," she taught him the elementary principle of success in every 
battle in life, " no surrender." I would not omit to speak of the loving 
hands, the kindly persuasive counsels, the self-denying toils of our 
mothers, to all which we are so much indebted for what we are and 
what we have done. The courageous, successful endeavor of the 
widowed mothers of our town is a living inspiration that wUl nerve 
the heart and uphold the hands of all mothers that may be called to 
face a similar experience. The life of Agnes Park Hemphill, widow 
of Captain Nathaniel, was an epic which waits a Homer to hand it 
down to posterity in verse. Colby University is indebted for its 
name and its funds to the heroic mother of its founder, in whose veins 
coursed the blood of the McKeens, the Dinsmoors, the Nesmiths, and 
the Davidsons of our town. How much we are indebted to the kind, 
patient, painstaking industry of the nmnberless female school teachers 
who have endured our wayward tempers and roguish ti'icks, and 
taught us that most useful lesson, obedience, as well as how to speak 
and write our mother tongue ! Who can count the debt due to our 
late veteran Olive Park, whose tact and charm of manners held the 
annually recurring troops of little ones in tow around her till the 
three score and fifteen years admonished her that the silver cord 
must be broken. 

But, my friends, let us glance over our country and see where the 



72 Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 

Scotch-Irish have been found, and what footprints they have left on 
the sands of time. Bancroft says : " The fii*st public voice in America 
for dissolving aU connection with Great Britain came not from the 
Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor from the 
planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of 
North Carolina." The prototype of the declaration of independence 
was put forth by the Scotch-Irish at Mechlenburg, North Carolina, 
before Thomas Jefferson, another Scotch-Irishman, made himself and 
it immortal in Carpenter's Hall in 1776. Nay, more, after the mem- 
orable declaration had been passed by the Continental congress, and it 
was proposed that each member should put his sign manual to that 
document which made him a traitor to his then king, it was not tiU 
John Weatherspoon, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian preacher, the lineal 
descendant of John Knox, rose in his place with solemn mien and 
declared that his gray head must soon bow to the fate of the human 
race, but he preferred that it should fall by the axe of the executioneer 
rather than that the cause of independence of Great Britain should not 
prevail, that the hesitating stood firm, and every man came up after 
him and affixed his name to the immortal document. Of those who have 
filled the presidential chair, eleven have been of Scotch-Irish ancestry, 
and of the illustrious names tliat have aided in making the Supreme 
Court of the United States the most respected of all the judicial tribu- 
nals in the world five at least have been of Scotch-Irish ancestry. 

The first independent legislative body organized in any of the so- 
called English colonies was that of New Hampshire in which Matthew 
Thornton of Londonderry, an Ulster man by birth, was its cliief execu- 
tive, then styled president. The Scotch-Irish settled in Virginia and 
gave to the American Revolution Patrick Henry, James Madison, and 
Thomas Jefferson. They settled in Pennsylvania, and history has 
recorded the declaration made at Carlisle, before July 4, 1776, that 
these colonies must be free from the oppressive hand of Britain ; and 
for fiity years a Scotch-Irishman was governor of Pennsylvania. 
The Scotch-Irish settled in North Carolina, and May 20, 1776, 
sounded the keynote of rebellion in the Mechlenbiirg declaration. 
When the Scotch-Irish of the land declared that the American 
colonies should be free it meant that the Scotch-Irish blood was 
ready to flow upon the battle field, that the Scotch-Irish arm vt^as 
ready to wield the battle axe, and that the word " surrender "' would 
never be uttered. Who shall be found to write the history of the 
Ulster men in the United States ? 

Of the many who have gone from this town, to other theatres of 



Address hy Hon. James Dinsmoor. 73 

action, no one has been known to cast disgrace on the town of his 
nativity, or that of liis ancestry, by the commission of crime. Leon- 
ard A. MoiTison, our most painstaking and accui*ate town historian, 
has found the natives of this town and tbeir descendants in all the 
devious walks of business life, honored and respected by those who 
are law-abiding citizens. 

The tendency has been to emigration. The manufacturing cities, 
with the demand for skilled labor incident thereto, have been a great 
attraction to the ambitious and venturesome of both sexes. The rail- 
road has offered new fields for occupation, has nearly annihilated 
space, and brought in competition with the farming interests of the 
town the cheap virgin soil of the West and South, and forced the cul- 
tivator to abandon the crops that supported the fathers, and adopt one 
not exposed to the competition of more generous soils or of more 
genial climates. The lessons of industry and economy, taken in with 
their mother's milk, have been their best banking capital. 

And we can say to-day to the world, if it want's a good husband or 
a good wife, if it wants the example of a good father or a good 
mother, if it wants a good carpenter or a good mason, a good 
macliinist or a good ship-builder, or that prime necessity of the travel- 
ing American, a man that will always have your baggage where you 
can get it, if it wants a merchant or a manufacturer, if it wants a 
member of a town or city government, if it wants a member of the 
state legislature or of congress, if it wants a lawyer or a doctor, a 
school master or a school mistress, a judge or a governor, a president 
of a college or of a deaf and dumb asylum, — in fact, if there should 
ever be found a place to be filled with the first order of talent, let it 
come to Windham and get its supply. And now, my friends, what 
can I say for those of us who have left the hearth-stone, that should 
be a fitting tribute to the worth of tliose who have withstood all the 
blandishments of city life, of manufacturing villages, of the boundless 
West, of the gold fields of California, and of the plains of Texas, and 
have trod the steps the fathers and mothers have trod, have kept 
bright and burning the light in the window for the wandering boy 
and girl, have sustained the tottering steps of the aged, and looked 
well to it that the reputation of our good town took no detriment by 
the passage of time ; nay, more, have killed the fatted calf for us 
to-day and given us this royal reception ? 

Daniel Webster said that the highest earthly reward any man 
could receive was the consciousness of a duty done. 
May that he yours. 



74 The Bock of Liberty. 

The President : — The next feature of the programme will be a 
song by the glee club, " The Rock of Liberty." 

THE ROCK OF LIBERTY. 

Oh, the firm old rock, the wave-worn rock, 
That braved the blast and the billow's shock. 
It was born with time on a barren shore 
And laughed with scorn at the ocean's roar. 
'T was here that first the Pilgrim band 
Came weary up the foaming strand, 
And the tree they reared in the days gone by. 
It Jives, it lives, and ne'er shall die. 

Thou stern old rock, in the ages past 
Thy brow was bleached by the warring blast, 
But thy wintry toil with the wave is o'er, 
And the billows beat thy base no more. 
Yet countless as thy sands, old rock, 
Are the hardy sons of the Pilgrim stock. 
And the tree they reared in the days gone by, 
It lives, it lives, and ne'er shall die. 

Then rest, old rock, on the sea^beat shore ; 
Thy sires are lulled by the breaker's roar. 
'T was here that first their hymns were heard, 
O'er the startled cry of the ocean bird. 
'T was here they lived, 'twas here they died, 
Their forms repose on the green hillside. 
But the tree they reared in the days gone by, 
It lives, it lives, and ne'er shall die. 

This magnificent composition was well sung by the club and roundly 
applauded by the assemblage. 

The Pbesident : — Ladies and gentlemen, considering the lateness 
of the hour, a very interesting letter from the old camping ground of 
our fathers on the soil of Ireland, wUl, for the present, be omitted. 
There will be an intermission for a short time dxiring which dinner 
will be served, and after that the exercises will be resumed here in 
the tent. This will close the forenoon exercises. 

The president, the speakers, and the distinguished guests, to the 
number of 140, repaired to the lower town hall where five long tables, 
beautifully spread and laden with choice delicacies, awaited them. 
The governor's table was in the center, at the end but on one side sat 



The Dinner. 75 

the president of the day, with the governor and Mrs. Tuttle on his 
right. Opposite was Hon. James Dinsmoor, the orator of the day, 
with his wife, followed by ex-Senator James W. Patterson, and 
Attorney-General Albert E. Pillsbury and Mrs. Pillsbury ; while other 
special guests sat on either side of this and the other tables. 

The president called the people to order and invited Rev. Cadmore 
M. Dinsmoor to invoke Divine Blessing. 

The school children, with the school officers, teachers, and others, to 
the number of nearly 100, sat down to well-laden tables in what was 
known formerly as Bartley's hall, now Goodwin's hall, which stands 
fronting the town-house, and upon the opposite side of the highway. 
The rest of the people, to the number of some 1,500, were regularly 
seated in the tent, and served by waiters in an orderly and systematic 
manner. Each waiter knew his section and attended to it. Fifteen 
hundred packages of food had been previously prepared. Each con- 
tained bread and meat, cake, or other eatables, and a banana ; the 
latter was separated from the food by a Japanese napkin. These 
were all placed upon a smooth, hard-surfaced manilla paper, cut for 
the purpose 16 inches square, which was then folded and pinned 
together in neat packages, and contained a variety and sufficiency to 
satisfy all. The committee had purchased in Boston 24 bailed wooden 
baskets. The bails were erect, the baskets were 22 inches in length, 
14 inches wide, and 11 inches deep, with lids at each end. Each held 
from 20 to 25 of the prepared packages. Each gentleman waiter, 
with a light but well-filled basket upon his arm, with one lid securely 
fastened down, and the other opened sufficiently to take forth the 
bundle of food, passed through his appropriate section, and all were 
quickly and amply supjilied. Everything was orderly, and there was 
not the slightest confusion. Large quantities of bread, meat, and cake 
remained after all had been supplied. 

One hundred and twenty gallons of coffee had been made by a firm 
in Boston and shipped in tanks to the town-house, — hot and ready for 
use. Each guest had been provided with a mvig : the coffee was passed 
through the great tent in strainer pails bought for the occasion, and 
as this work was systematized the same as the passing of the food, 
each guest was quickly supplied with the excellent beverage. In the 
same manner the guests in the lower town-haU, and in Goodwin's haU, 
had been supplied with coffee. Cold water was provided in abundance. 

The band had early gone to the lower town-hall for dinner, and 
returned to the tent soon after the close of the forenoon's exercises, 
and entertained the people by playing the following : March, Wash- 



76 Address of Evarts Cutler^ Esq. 

ington Greys ; Overture, Orpheus ; Song without words, " Longing ;" 
Concert Galop, '' The Alarm." 

The Committee on Collation were William D. Cochran, Albert E. 
Simpson, and George E. Seavey. Mr. Cochran was absent attending 
the General Assembly in Portland, Oregon, the gi*eater part of the 
time that preparations were being made for the celebration, and Mr. 
Seavey was prevented by private business from taking any part as 
member of the committee, so the burden of planning and carrying out 
the details of the work fell largely upon Mr. Simpson. He and those 
who aided him are entitled to much credit for the systematic, orderly, 
and efficient manner in which everything was done. 



AFTERNOON EXERCISES. 

After dinner, speaking was resumed in the tent. At a quarter to 3 
o'clock the president called the assemblage to order, and said : 

" The first things to be listened to will be the sentiments and the 
responses. And, to begin, we have the toast, ' The Town of Wind- 
ham — a place of sacred associations and pleasant memories. For 
many generations the honest industry of her people has been success- 
fully exhibited in each annual golden harvest ; and, better still, in the 
valued institutions they have established and sustained.' I have the 
pleasure of introducing to you the son of a former pastor, Evarts 
Cutler, Esq., of New Haven, Conn., who wiU respond to this senti- 
ment." [Applause.] 

ADDRESS OF EVARTS CUTLER, ESQ. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — At such a time as this, 
the state of one not brought up to speechmaldng, — not a minister, or a 
lawyer or a politician, — is that of a man of whom you may have heard. 
This man had the inflammatory rheumatism so he couldn't move, 
and, at the same time, had the St. Vitus dance so he could n't keep 
still. [Laughter.] 

The St. Vitus dance, in my case, is my anxiety to acknowledge the 
courtesy of your committee in inviting me to speak, and my desire to 
pay some slight tribute to my native town ; the town where my hon- 
ored father and my sainted mother spent the best and most active 
years of their lives in loving labors for the spiritual and temporal 
well-being of its people. 



Address of JEvarts Cutler, Esq. 77 

The town of Windham needs no eulogy. She is so strong in the 
affections of her sons and daughters ; her history, her deeds, and her 
character speak for her so eloquently, that words of mine are not 
needed ; yet two or three words I must say. 

When I was a lad, and lived here, it hardly occurred to me that 
Windham was beautiful, but in these later years, when I come back 
on occasional visits, I am charmed with her natural scenery. Ride 
through the range, look down upon beautiful Corbett's pond, and 
across its blue waters to the plain where stands the home of my child- 
hood, and to the wooded hills beyond ; or, stand upon the top of But- 
terfield's Rock, and view the wide expanse ; or, climb to the top of 
Dinsmoor's hill, or Jenny's hiU, and take into your gaze the panorama 
of field and farm, forest, lake, and distant mountain, and, surely, you 
can but feel that Nature has made our town fair and lovely to look 
upon. 

But the stronger claim upon our loving admiration comes from her 
history and her character. Her history has already been broadly 
and vividly sketched by one of her distinguished sons, the orator of 
the day ; and we have in the noble volume compiled and edited with 
such ability and exhaustive research by the president of the day, 
who deserves and should receive the thanks of every son of Windham, 
a rich mine of information that may weU fill us with pride; and this 
speaks forcibly for her sturdy qualities of honesty, morality, intelli- 
gence, and patriotism. 

No town has a better record than she. When the nation has 
sounded the call to arms, to battle for the right, to repel invasion or 
suppress rebellion, Windham has always responded with promptness, 
zeal, and loyalty, and her patriotism has been shown in still higher 
forms — she has been of untold benefit to our country in raising up and 
training men and women of high character and lofty aims to go forth 
into the towns and cities of other states, or out to the wild frontier, to 
establish and uphold institutions of education, philanthropy, and reli- 
gion, and, by the force of manly and consistent character, to elevate 
the moral tone of society. Herein lies her strongest claim upon the 
respect of her children and the gratitude of our country. 

And, if I might be permitted to speak of the duties of the present 
residents of Windham, it would be to urge upon you the desirability, 
nay, the imperative obligation, of uniting all your forces to preserve 
and advance the high standard of education, morals, and religion, that 
has distinguished the town from its beginnings. To do this in the 
most effective manner, it is necessary to have, and to exercise, a feel- 



78 Address of Evarts Cutler, Esq. 

# 

ing of exalted self-respect, a true estimate of your own importance, a 
conviction that the high character of a small town is as important to 
the well-being of the state as though it were a large town. 

In these days, when the great cities of the land are growing so 
rapidly, and absorbing so much of the wealth of the country, and, at 
the same time, attracting to themselves such swarms of the idle, the 
ignorant, and the vicious, the off-scourings of creation, men who know 
little of our American institutions, and care still less ; it is the liighest 
duty of the people of the country towns to make themselves an irre- 
sistible power in the state and the nation, to counterbalance what 
threatens to be an overwhelmingly corrupt influence of the great cities. 

It is the urgent duty of every citizen to be thoroughly informed on 
public affairs, and to use every efPort to enlist his neighbors and his 
town in cooperation with the powers that make for political purity, 
honesty, and intelligence. To this end, a spirit of mutual encourage- 
ment, of helpfulness, and of emulation, should be excited. Above all, 
I would urge the duty of a spirit of hopefxilness, a determination not 
to despond when things seem to be going down-hiU. Losing heart 
and hope is often equivalent to losing the battle. All great reforms, 
all grand advances, are led by men and women of hopeful, sanguine 
temperament. Beware of the motto that so many either consciously 
or unconsciously adopt — " Expect nothing, and you will not be disap- 
pointed." Such a spirit is a dead bar to all progress. It cuts the 
nerve of all effort, and its possessors are disappointed, into the bar- 
gain. It is the feeling of the despondent man who, when he killed 
his pig, and was asked how much it weighed, replied, " It didn't weigh 
as much as I expected, and I never thought it would." [Laughter.] 

I often wish the world was more largely composed of men of the 
even temper, the hopeful spirit, and the undaunted courage, of good 
old Deacon Hopson. No matter what trials or losses, disappoint- 
ments or provocations, came to himself, his family, his friends, his 
church, or his town, he always rallied at once, and said : " Well, it 
might have been worse ; it might have been worse." [Laughter.] 

One time, a friend, to try him, said to him : " Deacon Hopson, I 
had a bad dream about you last night." 

" Ah ! what was it ? " 

" I dreamed I saw the devil carrying you off on his back ! " 

" Did you ? did you ? Well, well ; it might have been worse, it 
might have been worse." [Laughter.] 

" Worse ! How could it have been worse ? " 

" Oh, he might have made me carry him ! " [Great laughter.] 



Address of Rev. Samuel Morrison. 79 

I hope Deacon Hopson will never have the inflammatory rheumatism 
and St. Vitus dance at the same time ; but, if he should, I am sure his 
calm philosophy will triumph. [Laughter.] 

But, Mr. President, I am trespassing upon the time that belongs to 
others. Only a word more. From the force of circumstances and 
the natural shifting of the centers of production and of trade, Wind- 
ham may have decreased in population in the last fifty years, but the 
success of this celebration demonstrates that the old spirit survives. 
It is only by large-minded liberality, generous hospitality, thorough 
organization, and unity of feeling and purpose, that such a result is 
reached. 

The men of Windham have shown us to-day that they are worthy 
sons of worthy fathers, and the women of Windham have shown us 
that they are not one whit behind their mothers in dainty cookery and 
large-hearted generosity. [Applause.] 

If the good people of Windham can unite all their energies on such 
a celebration as this, and achieve such success, why may they not 
unite most heartily on all measures for the public good ? They can, 
and I believe they will, and, at the bi-centennial in the year 1942, her 
sons and daughters, assembled as we are to-day, will recount her 
deeds and dwell upon her history with the same loving pride that 
fills our breasts to-day. I close with the heartfelt sentiment, " God 
bless the Town of Windham." [Loud applause.] 

The President — To-day we celebrate the incorporation of this 
town. Just as truly do we also celebrate the establishment of the 
Christian church. In those early days, their history was indissolubly 
connected. The church established at the time of the incorporation 
remains unchanged. One of the sons of this town, Rev. Samuel Mor- 
rison, of Charlton, Mass., wiU respond to the sentiment, " The Church 
of Windham." [Great applause.] 

ADDRESS OF REV. SAMUEL MORRISON. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlevien : — I am told that there is 
no time to lose. Therefore I shall omit all the jokes, and attend 
strictly to that which is substantial. My memory easily covers more 
than one-third part of the time since the organization of the church 
in tliis town. I can readily go back more than fifty years and pict- 
ure to my mind what were then real scenes and real experiences. 
And no part, or hardly any part, of a picture that I would thus form, 



80 Address of Rev. Samuel Morrison. 

is more clear than that part about which the church is the center. In 
some way it was borne in upon me that, iaside from the home, the 
church was the most important of all institutions ; and, of all local 
churches, this one stood first. And in my later life I have seen no 
church building more suggestive of Christian worship than the one 
which stands yonder ; and no other house of worship has ever been 
to me so much a house of sacred worship. One minister only began 
his work, and, consequently, one other only closed his work with his 
people, during my early Hfe in this town. To both of these men I 
listened during all the early part of life, and for them both I have 
always cherished the highest feelings of esteem and regard. I 
remember them as men of sterling Christian character — men of sim- 
ple and impressive Christian dignity ; and I will add that I have held, 
as have others, in equal estimation and in equal regard, the wives of 
these two men. I have always thought they stood on a level of entire 
equality with their husbands, and were held in equal estimation by 
the people. 

I remember the congregation as it was forty or fifty years ago. I 
can picture it in my mind very clearly : a congregation of families — 
parents and children ; a family to a pew. I remember the pews that 
different families occupied. I remember the choir, and, by a slight 
exercise of memory and imagination, can again sit in our family pew, 
and listen tO the song part of Christian worship. I remember the 
fathers and mothers who are not, and the children who are ; but it 
does seem to me that a wind, bearing somewhat of a scorching quality, 
has swept across these faces ; and it does seem as though the white 
clouds from the skies have come down and laid upon these heads. 

But my thought is not in the direction of history or eulogy or rem- 
iniscence or contrast between the past and present, but rather in the 
direction of the importance, influence, and mission of the church ; and, 
as time is pressing, I will try to be not very long in this direction. 
The importance of the church consists in this, that it stands for the 
Christian religion ; and the unportance of the Christian religion in 
this, that it is of divine origin, and that it has a divine mission in the 
world. I think its importance is emphasized by the fact that it is the 
religion of the ages, the religion of Adam and Eve, of Enoch and Noah, 
the religion of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob ; the religion of Christ 
and his disciples ; it is the changeless religion of the ages. Christ 
himself gave the world no new religion ; nor did he change the old 
religion. He freed it from form and ceremony that it might the bet- 
ter be apprehended as spiritual truth, fitted for human hearts, — faith, 



Address of Rev. Samuel 3Iorrison. 81 

hope, and charity its divisions, and obedience its visible fruit. The 
church has a natural and pervasive influence which belongs to it as 
heat belongs to fire. The chiu'ch has a general influence on opinions. 
Whatever this town is to-day, it is something else than what it would 
have been were it not for the church. When I say church, I gener- 
ally mean the Christian religion, — that which the church stands for. 
Along with other institutions and other agencies, the church weaves 
its threads of influence into the history of the town ; and these threads 
are among the finest and brightest of all. The influence of the 
church comes silently into all homes and into all hearts ; it pervades 
them. Religion reaches every one as really as the air and the sun- 
shine. Society in all its phases is modified by it. It makes the dif- 
ference betAveen civilization and barbarism. The church means better 
government, better laws ; it means better home§ and better schools ; 
better manners and better habits ; higher refinement, sweeter friend- 
ship, and broader charity ; it means better neighbors, better citizens, bet- 
ter men and women ; — it means all these, besides what is usually spoken 
of as Christian character, sanctified hearts and lives. Everything you 
see and handle is changed by the touch of Christian influence. Every 
book and paper you read, every house you enter and all that you see 
within, every horse you drive, the carriage you ride in, the roads you 
follow, the walls and fences by the roadside, every person you see or 
meet, every roadway and corner you pass, every cultivated field and 
meadow you look upon, — all bear the impress of Christian civilization. 
And Christian civilization is but the outward expression of the Chi-is- 
tian religion. We breathe an atmosphere charged with religious 
truth. We live, we walk, and we work in the light of religion. We 
think and we feel under its inspiration. We grow along the line of 
its influences toward the ideal of its requirements. We may not be 
what we might be, — what we ought to be, — but we are what we would 
not be except for the Chi'istian religion. But, aside from its natural 
influence, the church has a special mission. It is in the world to be 
the light of the world, according to the statement of Him who is the 
world's personal light. It has a local home mission as wide as the 
home land, touching individual life and character, fvdfilled by direct 
Christian effort ; a mission of aggression and conquest, of voluntary 
plan and purpose fulfilled by its agents who possess its spirit and 
teach its doctrines where it has no existence, or exists only in weak- 
ness. How many border states and new states in our land have been 
blessed by the Christian ministry of our older churches. But, still 
fui'ther, it has a foreign mission, reaching to all nations. The great 
6 



82 Address of Rev. Samuel Morrison. 

petition of divine authorship is, "Thy kingdom come." The great 
commission of divine authority is, "Go ye into aU the world and 
preach the Gospel to every creature." And this prayer is to he an- 
swered, and this commission fulfilled, through the instrumentality of 
the church. Christ touched the eyes of the hlind, and they saw. The 
church reaches forth its hand and touches the far-off islands of the 
sea and the distant nations of the earth, and they come into possession 
of a new sight ; they see as they have not seen hitherto. Old things 
pass away, and aU things become new. Christ commanded, and the 
dead lived again. The church speaks the living Word, and these 
same islands and these same nations are quickened into newness ot 
life_a spiritual life. They live as they have never lived before ; 
and the church will continue to offer this prayer and to address itself 
to the fulfiUment of this commission till prayer and Christian work 
are no longer needed on earth. .,..,, j ^. 

I am reminded to-day of the mortality of the mdividual and the 
immortality of the institution. Men die, but the church lives None 
of the orioinal members of this church are present with us to-day, but 
the church is here, and it is the same church ; and when all its present 
membership shall have passed away the church will abide still, and be 
the same church, doing the same work, under the same guidance, and 
in the use of the same methods. The church moves on like the flow 
of a river : the same river, but different waters ; the same church, but 
a different membership. But, unlike a river, which always flows to 
a lower level, the church carries its moving tide upward. The receiv- 
ing ocean is higher than any part of the river-bed. ^^^^^^^ '^^ 
church above has been enriched by the contributions of this churdi. 
Where are the ministers that fell on this battlefield, and where the 
long line of godly men and women that gave the church its dignity 
and its power for good? And where the many who came withm the 
circle of the quickening influence of the church? They are not in 
these cemeteries of the town. We thought we laid them there, but, 
silently and unseen by us, they were borne upward to the skies. 
They are not now of the church militant, but of the church triumph- 
ant • not now the toiling and suffering, but the crowned and glorified. 
We' who spring from tliis people and belong to this people, are repre- 
sented in the great church above by fathers and mothers, by wives 
and husbands, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, who also be- 

lone- to this people. _ . . i. 

The church is of heavenly origin, and its mission is to bring heaven 
and earth into communion ; to bring the world into the embrace of its 




^l^^~ <37^k^Ll^ 



Address of Hon. George Wilson. 83 

faith ; into the current of its heavenward movement. The great cry 
of divine authorship is, " Thy kingdom come." The great commis- 
sion of equally divine authority is, " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature." And when this is done this 
great commission will be fulfilled, the gi^eat petition granted. Then 
the mission of the church will be accomplished, and the last page of 
its active, changeful history in this world will have been written. 

Citizens of the town of Windham, take care of the church, for it 
is the church that takes care of you. [Applause.] 

The President : — A former citizen of Windham is now here and 
wiU speak a few words to you. I will introduce the Honorable George 
Wilson, ex-mayor of New Bedford, Mass. 

ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE WILSON. 

Mr. President : — Excuse me for breaking into the order of your 
exercises, but it is necessary that I do so at the present moment. I 
will not detain you long. I am not a resident of Windham, although 
I am a native, and I reside in New Bedford. I went away from 
here fifty-five years ago, poor and unknown, and have just main- 
tained my position. I am very happy to see you here, and I hope 
to hear further from you before I leave. My principal object in 
coming here, if not inappropriate to this meeting, is one of some 
importance, and I will proceed at once to say what I have to say. I 
have long had it in my mind to do a little something to preserve the 
beauty of the cemetery on the hill east of Corbett's pond, and I intend 
to make this proposition to the officers of the town ; — to give them 
one thousand dollars, in trust, for the purpose oi fertilizing and bemi- 
tifying this spot of hallowed land. [Applause.] This matter wiU 
need to be made pretty clear and definite, in order that the benefit 
may not be fritted away, otherwise a hundred years from now the 
income of this money might be used for something else. I make this 
donation on condition that if the interest on the fund should be used 
for any other purpose than that stipulated, the fund shall revert to 
my heirs-at-law. I shall put the fund into the hands of my friends 
here, who know all about my purpose, and when the town is ready to 
accept the terms, the money will be ready for it. 

And let me add one word. It takes so long to get the cemetery in 
fine order, where we are depending upon the interest to accrue from 
this money, that I would suggest, if there are others interested in this 
work, and my own interest comes in part from the fact that my 



84 Address of William C. Harris^ Esq. 

mother and father are resting there, — I say if others feel interested 
enough to join me, and will raise one hundred dollars, I will put 
another hundred to that, which wiU enable the town authorities to 
fertilize and beautify the cemetery in an acceptable manner [Ap- 
plause.] 

(A gentleman in the audience immediately shouted that he would 
give ten dollars.) 

The President : — In behalf of the citizens of Windham, I will 
return thanks to Mr. Wilson for the liberal offer he has made. 
[Applause.] 

The next sentiment will be " Our Public Schools, The educators of 
youth : a main support of our free and benign institutions of govern- 
ment." This will be responded to by Wm. C. Harris, Esq. 

ADDRESS OF WILLIAM C. HARRIS, ESQ. 

The first desire of the early settlers of New England was to pro- 
vide homes for their families. Their next thought was to erect a 
house in which to meet for the worship of their Creator ; and then 
their attention was directed to the educational wants of their children. 
In this movement they made no mistake, for they made New England 
what she is, the home of liberty, education, and intelligence. The 
importance of having the whole community well educated cannot be 
overstated. Thomas Jefferson once said : " If a nation expects to be 
ignorant and free, it expects what never was, and never will be." 

Our republic is founded upon intelligence, with the common school 
as its corner-stone. A New England poet has written as follows : 

" Yet on her rocks, and on her sands, 
And wintry hills, the schoolhouse stands ; 
And what the rugged soil denies, 
The harvest of the mind supplies." 

We are not to suppose the writer of those lines had Windham 
especially in view, but are not the words quite applicable ? The soil 
here is rocky and less productive than in many localities, yet here 
have been reared boys and girls who have grown to be men and 
women, who have become distinguished in the various vocations of 
life. Here, in Christian homes and district schools, was laid the 
foundation of an education which aided its possessors in becoming 
useful and valuable members of this and other communities. 

Some have selected the clerical, some the legal, and others the med- 



Address of William C. Harris^ Esq. 85 

ical profession ; others have filled high and responsible positions in 
our state, in cities, in banks and other corporations ; a large number 
of men and women have gone to various parts of the country as teach- 
ers, in schools of all grades, from the common school to the highest 
institutions of leai*ning ; and many others have engaged in the culti- 
vation of the soil in the East, and in the West. Intelligent men and 
women are the staple production of the town. 

For information relative to the schools in the early years of this 
town, I am indebted to the historian of. Windham. He says: "The 
first school in town, of which there is any record, was in 1766, when 
James Aiken was hired, in the east part of the town, to teach the 
children to read." No doubt there were schools in the different parts 
of the town at a much earlier date. " How our early settlei's received 
their education, and found means to educate their children, is a sub- 
ject full of interest, and one upon which we have but little informa- 
tion." The branches taught in the early schools were reading, spell- 
ing, and writing ; in addition, the Westminster catechism was used as 
a text-book, and lessons in it recited every Saturday forenoon ; arith- 
metic was, after some years, added. Geography was used as a reading 
book, only, at first. The first schoolhouses were built, not by tax, but 
by subscription. It is supposed there were schoolhouses in districts 
No. 1 and No. 2 as early as 1750. Schools were also taught in pri- 
vate houses, and sometimes in barns and shops. The session-house 
that stood near the meeting-house, on the range, was used for school 
purj^oses. 

About the year 1768, Rev. Simon Williams, the minister of the 
town, opened a private academy for the benefit of the young, which 
not only gave a new impulse to the cause of education in this place, 
but attracted the attention and patronage of other towns, and was re- 
sorted to by students from Boston, and other large cities. Such was 
his success in teaching that he fitted many young men for college. Dr. 
John Park, Sil^s Betton, Esq., Silas Dinsmoor, John Dinsmoor, and 
Governor Samuel Dinsmoor were among the number from this town. 
Sometimes the school contained forty or more scholars. It was kept 
in the parsonage, which stood where Mrs. Call's house now stands. 
The academy was in operation about twenty-two years, and closed on 
account of Mr. Williams's failing health. In the fall of 1832, Dr. 
Milton Ward taught a high school at the center of the town. Four 
or five years latei', a term was taught by Miss Lucinda Foster ; for 
several years afterward there were fall terms taught by college stu- 
dents or graduates, all of which were of great value to those who 



86 Address of William C. Harris, Esq. 

attended. The scholars came to these schools from all parts of the 
town. 

In later years, the district schools have been much longer, be- 
cause of the increased amount of school money. Many of the more 
advanced scholars have gone to Pinkerton Academy, and institutions 
in other places. Fifty years ago, the school money amounted to 
$326 ; last year it was $1,277. For several years past we have 
raised $300 above the requirements of the law for schools, and last 
March we added another $100. A fact worthy of mention is that, 
between the years 1852 and 1863, each district in town built a new 
schoolhouse, at an aggregate cost of $8,400. This revolution resulted 
from two causes : First, the burning of the No. 3 house, and, second, 
the generous gift of $1,000 to district No. 2, for a school fund, by 
Samuel W. Simpson, Esq., and also his liberal offer to aid other dis- 
tricts in obtaining funds of like size. Three thousand dollars was 
invested in this way, thus making for school purposes, an outlay of 
$11,400 in the space of eleven years. A new interest in the cause of 
education was awakened, which still continues. We now have seven 
good schoolhouses, all painted white, with blinds. Each house is 
well supplied with blackboards, globes, charts, and Webster's una- 
bridged dictionaries, and several have clocks. Ample playgrounds 
surround each house. At the present time there are six schools in 
successful operation, presided over by efficient teachers, and under the 
direction of a competent school board of three members. The com- 
mon school is the richest and most valuable legacy we have received 
from our fathers ; let us see to it that we transmit it to our children 
unimpaired. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Harris's address there was music by the 
band, a baritone solo, " Polka Brilliante," by A. D. Wingate. 

The president then addressed the assemblage as follows : 
What I am to say is not upon the programme. The generous offer 
of Mr. Wilson has met with a prompt response in the hearts of the 
people here. One gentleman has said that if it was the intention to 
raise one hundred dollars, he would give twenty-five dollars ; another 
will give ten dollars ; and another has passed me five dollars. So you 
may take that matter up among yourselves, and if you can raise the 
money for this good purpose for which Mr. Wilson has so generously 
tendered one hundred dollars, it will be very acceptable. 

The next sentiment is, " The Nesmith Free Public Library. Found- 
ed through the generosity and public spirit of a son of Windham, it 





^ "^mi 


HHHF 




,Wm ^s 


|^B^~ 




•»•. ^n^ 


Ml 


MS 




■ ~i 




N^. 



fn< 






K I- 



'%; 



Address of Rev. William E. Westervelt. 87 

is a source of improvement to yomig and old, of recreation to all, and 
is an educator next in value to our public schools." I will call 
upon the Rev. William E. Westervelt, of Windham, to respond. 

ADDRESS OF REV. WILLIAM E. "WESTERVELT. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — It goes without saying 
that the Nesmith Free Public Library is a very valuable institution. 
It reflects honor upon its generous founder, and credit upon the intelli- 
gence and good sense of the people of Windham. It was a noble 
deed of the late Col. Thomas Nesmith to confer the favor, and a 
wise step on your part to accept it. 

A library of 3,000 volumes, containing the best thoughts of many 
of the standard authors upon a variety of the most important subjects, 
and annually increasing, is a boon which I imagine but few towns of 
the size of ours can boast. 

Here is an opportunity for the young men and women of our town, 
who will avail themselves of it, to acquire a liberal education. Had 
our highly honored and deeply lamented presidents, Lincoln and Gar- 
field, enjoyed such a privilege in their youtliful days, they would have 
deemed themselves among the most fortunate of favored young men. 
To them a single book of solid worth, with the blaze of only a pine 
knot by which to read it, was an invaluable treasure. And your own 
history shows that the early settlers of this town would have prized 
it above gold or rubies. They were a reading people ; and their 
descendants made various attempts to establish a public library, and 
their efforts were crowned with creditable success. But they were not 
fuUy realized until 1871, when the Nesmith Library was founded by 
a gift of $3,000, of which $2,000 was to be immediately expended 
for books, and the balance to be placed on interest at six per cent, 
and the interest annually applied for the increase of the same. 

That trust was wisely and faithfully executed by your able and 
judicious committee, of which the Hon. Leonard A. Morrison, our 
well known author and ardent lover of good books, was a member. 
[Applause.] 

By that benevolent act of Col. Nesmith, a perennial fountain was 
opened in his native town, whose pure waters have ever since brought 
solace, stimulus, refreshment, and strength to the homes and hearts of 
the people of Windham. [Loud applause.] His name has become a 
household word. It is remembered and cherished by the aged and 
the young, by the sick and the well, by the bed-ridden invalid and the 



88 Address of William H. Ayidersoii^ Esq. 

nightly watchers. He has supplied the means for beguiling many a 
weary hour, of sustaining many a sinking hope, and of reviving many 
a fainting heart. He has endeared himself to all the thoughtful, and 
his memory is embalmed in the hearts of a grateful people. There 
it will live and be fragrant as long as the Nesmith library shall exist 
and the citizens of Windham continue to be a reading people. All 
honor to his name ; and to the names, also, of those who by like ben- 
efactions have helped the cause of education, morals, and religion in 
their native town, to wit, James Wilson, Jeremiah Hills, Harriett 
Dinsmoor, and others. May we not hope that their example will be 
followed by others of Windham's prosperous, generous, and grateful 
sons and daughters, who will thus link their names with perpetual 
usefulness and honor in promoting the best interests of coming gener- 
ations ? 

Some of the custodians of the Nesmith libraiy have already 
expressed grave apprehensions that the day is not distant when they 
may find themselves in the plight of the old Avoman who lived in a 
shoe and had so many children she knew not what to do. Not, 
indeed, that she had too many, but that she needed ampler quarters 
for their accommodations, and a larger purse to supply their wants. 
And we are not afraid of ever having too many books, but we 
shall need more siDacious accommodations for them and their 
readers. 

And as the cause of education and of religion should always go 
hand in hand, we trust that in the future, as in the past, both causes 
will find a warm place and a liberal response in the hearts and gifts 
of those who wish well to the future interests of their native and hon- 
ored town. 

The President : — The next sentiment will be, '' The Townships of 
Londonderry and Windham ; early partners ; may their future be 
bright with the noble deeds of their sons and daughters." 

I will introduce to you William Henry Anderson, Esq., of Lowell, 
Mass., to respond to that sentiment. [Applause.] 

ADDRESS OF WILLIAM H. ANDERSON, ESQ. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — In common with you all 
this afternoon, I was very much charmed with the songs of the Glee 
Club, and I was very much surprised that men of their age could 
sing so well. But during the intermission I think the mystery was 





/ /(/, ^^2-^^^^^^jG^iU^ 



a>eak-iti.vg ' 



Address of William H. Anderson^ Esq. 89 

explained, for the leader of the club told me that his first recollection 
of the orator of the day to-day, Mr. Dinsnioor, was, when he went to 
school to him, of his giving him a couple of very severe boxes on the 
head, one on each side. Our friend said it came very hard to him 
this forenoon to sing, " Give me your hand, old friend of my youth." 
[Laughter.] But he ought not to complain, because that is probably 
what gave him his musical ear. [Laughter.] 

Caesar, in his Commentaries, tells us that, in ancient times, " All 
Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the 
Aquitani another, those, who in their own language are called Celts, 
in ours, Gauls, the third." So we, in more modern days, know that 
all ancient Londonderry is divided into three parts, Londonderry, 
Derry, and Windham. 

After describing the three provinces, two of which were separated 
by the river Garonne as Londonderry and Windham are separated by 
that stream which in the days of my childhood was a majestic river, 
but is now only Beaver brook, he adds, — '' All these differ from each 
other in language, customs, and laws." Here the analogy fails, for 
no argument is needed on this occasion, or any other, to satisfy any 
son or daughter of either town or any of their descendants, near or 
remote, that the three towns, call them as you choose, former part- 
ners or parents and children, not only resemble each other in those 
respects in which the divisions of ancient Gaul differed from each other, 
but that they to such an extent have the same thouglits, speak the 
same language, and do the same acts ; are so alike in their views of 
religion, politics, laws ; so agreed as to the hard work and small 
profits attending life on a farm ; so well assured that no people ever 
had such an ancestiy as they have in the Scotch-Irish from the north 
of Ireland ; so equally indifferent to good highways and patient 
with bad ones, that, were it now as much the fashion to unite towns 
as it was 150 years ago to divide them, there would be no difficulty 
whatever in welding the three parts again into one homogeneous 
whole. 

Let me not be understood in what I have said as intimating that 
since the dissolution of the old firm, the taking down of the weather- 
beaten sign, the squaring up of the old accounts, and the opening of 
a new set of books by each partner town on its own account, there has 
not been rapid and substantial progress in all those things which go 
to make up a well-ordered New England community. Ah, no, Mr. 
President, I am far too wise a man, although I may not look it, to 
intimate any such thing when the border line of that city of refuge. 



90 Add7-ess of William IT. Anderson, Esq. 

Massachusetts, is so far away, the road to it so sandy, and it is allow- 
able in New Hampshire to punish slanderers by personal chastise- 
ment. What I do say is, that that progress has been common to all 
the towns forming the old triumvirate. They have advanced with 
equal steps in all those things which have tended to ameliorate the 
hard conditions of life as they existed during that year, 150 years 
ago, when Windham started in the world for itself. 

We all know how common an experience it is, after an old, well- 
established firm has kept on a conservative course for a term of 
years, and after the partnership is dissolved, and the individual mem- 
bers start in business for themselves, one after another, for the young- 
est and least-experienced partner to branch out the broadest, put on 
the most airs, and not only to think, but to be sure, he " knows it all," 
and is a little ahead of those who remain at the old stand. So with 
our three towns, I suppose it is the youngest partner, Derry, which, 
with its electric lights, its system of waterworks, its brass band, its 
newspaper (which, by the way, is a credit to it), its dozen or more 
" jiner " societies, its circus, its living whist, and its new academy 
building, thinks itself a little smarter and better than either of the 
staid old senior partners, Londonderry and Windham. But let not 
Derry boast itself unseemly ; Londonderry and Windham are not far 
behind. There seems to be a veritable western boom at North Lon- 
donderry, and house lots are surveyed and staked out and the praises 
of the place sounded in a way to bring a blush to the cheek even of a 
Kansas real estate agent, and am I not building a custom house at 
West Windham, at the head of navigation on Beaver brook ? 
[Laughter.] Let Derry beware. 

I have often wondered, Mr. President, why the new town char- 
tered in 1742 was called Windham, and its historian has not told us. 
Was it in honor of some individual, or family, of that name, or in 
consequence of some real or fancied peculiarity in its natural features, 
or was it selected because it is an easily spoken and smoothly sound- 
ing word ? 

But, we must not linger over these speculations. In these days of 
discussions of tariffs, duties and taxes, and disagreements as to what 
shall, and what shall not, bear the burden of taxation, everybody will 
agree that the patience of an audience, gathered under these circiun- 
stances, is one of those things that ought not to be taxed. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

I close, Mr. President, with this sentiment, which has not only the 
beauty of terseness, but the strength of truth : The men, the women, 



Address of Rev. Warren R. Cochrane, D. D. 91 

the children, of the respective members of the three towns, London- 
derry, Derry, Windham — 

The first are strong ; 

The second are neat ; 

The third are sweet, 

And all are exceedingly hard to beat. 

[Loud applause.] 

At this point the skies were darkened and the rain was falling fast 
upon the tent. But the exercises proceeded. The band gave the 
selection, " A Night in Grenada." 

The President : — Ladies and gentlemen, our next sentiment will 
be, " Our Scotch forefathers in Scotland, Ireland, and New Hamp- 
shire : May they live forever in song and in story. May their heroic 
virtues be the priceless legacy of their descendants." I will call upon 
Kev. Warren R. Cochrane, D. D., of Antrim, N. H., to respond to 
this toast. [Applause.] 

ADDRESS OF REV. WARREN R. COCHRAKE, D. D. 

Friends: — You have given me a subject that it would take two or 
three hours to adequately treat, a subject which I have not time to speak 
upon or strength to be heard upon at this moment. I remember see- 
ing a notice somewhere in the portals of a certain church, " Don't 
shoot the organist," and I thought, perhaps, if I were called upon to 
speak to-day, the first thing I would put in would be such a caveat as 
that — I would caution you not to shoot the speaker, who, after such 
eloquence, can add nothing, with such an abstract thing as this, to 
interest an audience, after the effusions and the charms of music that 
have been poured into their ears. 

I have been asked to speak to the sentiment, "• The Scotch in Scot- 
land, the Scotch in Ireland, and the Scotch in America." My friend 
Morrison has written three or four volumes on this subject, and yet he 
expects me to crowd into a five minutes' speech the facts that cover 
the whole ground. I should like to talk to an audience gathered in a 
church, or somewhere where I could be heard for an hour on this 
theme. My heart is in it. I am a Scotchman, and I rejoice in the 
Scotch character, for it is a working power, interested in everything 
good all over the world. 

The first that we know about Scotchmen is a reference that we find 
in Roman history to a Scotchman up among the highlands of 



92 Address of Rev. Warreti R. Cochrane, B. D. 

old Scotland ; and i£ I were going to say three things of this person- 
age, I sliould say first that he was a mighty Scotchman. The whole 
Roman army was afraid of the few clans camped to the north of 
them. The whole cultivated area of Scotland at that time was less 
than that of the state of New Hampshire, and yet the whole power of 
Rome was never able to conquer little Scotland ; and when they were 
so terrified, and did not know how to live in security, they built a wall 
up between Scotland and England, to keep the Scotchmen from con- 
quering the Roman army. The Romans conquered England, but nei- 
ther the Roman, nor any other power under Heaven, could ever con- 
quer little Scotland. [Applause.] They tried it a few times, you 
know, and they had a little interview with Robert Bruce, at Bannock- 
burn, and left 50,000 of their soldiers dead on the field, or carried off 
as prisoners under the touch of Bruce ; and after that day they were 
content to let the Scotch manage their own affairs. The Scotch were 
mighty smart, and were Presbyterians. I cannot stop to tell all 
their remarkable deeds of bravery, but there were five kings of Eng- 
land who tried to force Episcopacy on Scotland, but did not succeed, 
and Scotland remains Presbyterian, and always will be such, while 
the world stands. The Scotch, in sentiment, were sui generis ; they 
■were themselves ; they were Scotch, not English, or Irish, or Britons, 
or Danes, or Saxons. They were Scotch when the Romans found 
them, and when they left them, and they are Scotch to-day, and in 
their posterity they are Scotch, anyway, and nothing else. Well, 
King James had a little land fall to him over in Ireland, by confisca- 
tion, and after the English sent up to Scotland to get a king to govern 
them, he knew the Scotch character so well that he sent some over to 
Ireland, and by thrift and enterprise they flourished there, and 
awakened the jealousy of their Irish neighbors, and after a time they 
wei'e conquered, but they could not be subdued. They were mighty 
smart in Ireland. The Scotch in Ireland were Presbyterians still, 
and the Scotch in Ireland were sui generis. They were themselves, 
not merged with any others. They were not Britons, Angles, Dutch- 
men, or Jews, and no Irish blood was in their veins, but they were 
Scotch to the backbone. When they came to America they were 
still Scotch. 

If I had time, I should like to speak of the Scotch in America at 
great length, but I will only take a minute to say that it is astonish- 
ing to see how many of Scotch blood have gone to Pennsylvania and 
other great states of the Union to take high j^laces in tliis land. We 
have had that blood in eleven presidents of the United States, five 



Address of Rev. Warren R. Cochrane, D. D. 93 

chief-justices of the United States supreme court, and any quantity of 
senators, representatives, lawyers, and poor sticks of ministers — like 
myself — thrown in. [Laughter.] I expect that the Scotch in Amer- 
ica will go on and keep separate from other people, and not become 
American. They do not need to be Americanized. They need only 
to remain what they are, for the Scotch, and Pilgrim fathers allied 
to them, are the American ideal. They are the American ideal, I 
say, and need not to be Americanized. Let others come to them, the 
Pilgrim, and of the Scotch standard, — not the Scotch-Irish standard, — 
nothing else. We want the nation to come to them. So we say, — 

" Let the nations be few or be many, 

Wherever humanity's flag is unfurled, 
We expect the Scotch boy to be foremost of any, 

And the bonnie Scotch lassies to rule the whole world." 

[Applause.] 

At the conclusion of Dr. Cochrane's address, the band was prepared 
and expected to play that sweet song of our dear old Fatherland, " The 
Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon," but the hastening moments neces- 
sitated its omission, which, was a regret to all. 

To the sentiment, " The Law : May it ever be the Defender of the 
Right," it was expected that the Hon. Francis Alexander Marden, 
of New York city, an honored son of Windham, would respond. He 
did not reach the celebration until afternoon, and was not seen by the 
presiding officer. It was a matter of general regret that his voice was 
not heard upon the rostrum. 

At this time the exercises were held under some disadvantages. 
The rain fell in torrents, and, as the down-pour came upon the great 
tent, the music of the rain and the rolling of distant thunder made it 
almost impossible for many at this moment to hear the orators. Many 
people stood upon the seats, and raised their umbrellas. While Sen- 
ator Patterson was speaking an umbrella was held over him for 
protection from the rain which beat through the tent. At this 
moment it was a veritable contest between the elements and the dis- 
tinguished ex-senator to see which could make the most noise, and it 
was generally considered about '* a draw game." 

The President : — There is a gentleman with us whom the people 
of New Hampshire are always glad to welcome. I do not know upon 
what subject he wiU speak. He can talk upon any topic. All he has 
to do is to open his lips, and the words pour forth like the rain upon 



94 Address of Hon. J. W. Patterson. 

this tent. [Laughter.] I would call upon Hon. James W. Patterson. 
[Applause.] 

ADDRESS OF HON. J. W. PATTERSON. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — I see you are being baptized into the 
true Scotch theology. [Laughter.] But if you will just read your 
programme, or rather hill of fare, you will observe that I am not 
down. It reminds me of the Englishman up in Montreal who went 
into a French restaurant but could not read French. He did not 
want anybody to know of his ignorance, and so he took up the bill of 
fare and gave his order to the young lady who was waiting on liim. 
She did not understand him, and he pointed to the first thing upon 
the bill. She brought in some soup. He ate the soup and pointed 
to the next thing, and she brought him some more soup. He took 
a little of it, and, thinking that he would come at last to something 
solid, he called the young lady and pointed to the last thing on the 
hill of fare. She brought in some toothpicks. [Laughter.] He said, 
" What did you bring me those for ? I have had nothing to eat." 

You have had a great deal of solid food to-day, and I do not be- 
lieve you have need of my toothpicks ; but I am reminded also of the 
little boy who said to his mother one day, " Mother, I wish I was a 
twin." " What do you want to be a twin for?" said she. " If I was 
a twin," he replied, " I would send my brother to school and I would 
go fishing." [Laughter.] I came fishing to-day, and here I am called 
upon to recite. There is nothing fair about it [laughter] ; but I will 
say one or two words, simply, and let you off. 

I am called upon to speak in the place of Governor Tuttle and 
Governor Tuttle was to speak on New Hampsliire. If I had time I 
would like to develop one or two thoughts in that connection. We 
have heard a great deal from our Massachusetts friends about the 
Pilgrims and Puritans. WeU, they were a splendid and godly sort 
of men, and it was my privilege last summer to go to old Scrooby, 
Austerfield, and Leyden, and stand where the Pilgrims stood be- 
fore they came to Plymouth and established a free state and a free 
church for which we honor their memories ; but the Scotch-Irish who 
planted Londonderry in our state have a history as grand and impres- 
sive in the eyes of the Christian world as the Puritan or the Pilgrim. 
[Applause.] They endured in the old country a harder fight for 
conscience and freedom than the Puritans or the Pilgrims. Why, 
gentlemen, it was my privilege to stand in old Londonderry a few 
years ago. I entered the city by the ferry gate which Morrison 



Address of Hon. J. W. Patterson. 95 

closed in the face of the enemy, and around which the starving peo- 
ple who entered the army were to be seen steadfast in the struggle. 
The Irish were fighting for King James and the Scotch for William 
and his cause. I have stood also at the slaughter gate where, under 
George Walker, the Scotch peasantry battled against the combined 
Irish and French forces until the blood flowed in streams down the 
hiU and under the gate wliich has been called " Slaughter Gate " from 
that day to this. Those men who stood in old Londonderry and 
fought for their faith and freedom came to Londonderry in this 
country and founded that town and this. They were your progeni- 
tors. They were the men who planted New England. They had 
fought for liberty, civil and religious, against the English crown, and 
religious intolerance, and were prepared to be defenders of liberty 
here- 
One thing more I want to say for the benefit of some of my Massa- 
chusetts friends, and that is, that the old Scotch-Irish of Londonderry 
fought the battle of Bunker Hill for Massachusetts. [Applause.] It 
was General Stark — that Scotch-Irish hero from New Hampshire — 
who led in the battle of Bunker Hill ; and it was Captain Moore, who 
stood behind the stone wall on the pebbly beach on the Mystic, with 
his Scotcli-Ii'ish friends, and hurled back the whole British force three 
successive times ; and when at last the British soldiery came over the 
redoubt, it was the Scotch-Irish who clubbed their guns and covered 
the retreat ; and they, too, under General Stark, at Bennington, saved 
this country and its principles of freedom for future generations. 
So much for the Scotch-Irish, then. They have been loyal to liberty 
and their faith ever since. They have given to this country more 
scholars, more orators, more statesmen, relatively, than any other 
race that ever came to the shores of America ; and their descendants, 
to-day, are true to the history, true to the principles, and true to the 
blood of their ancestors. [Loud applause.] 

At the conclusion of ex-Senator Patterson's address the rain was 
still falling in torrents. The band was signalled to play and enter- 
tained the audience several minutes till the rain subsided. They 
played " American Dance — Characteristic " ; Overture, " Morning, 
Doon, and night in Vienna," and other stirring and finely rendered 
selections. 

The President : — Ladies and gentlemen, the sentiment, "Wind- 
ham's absent sons and daughters and their children," will be responded 
to by Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury, of Boston, attorney-general of Massa- 
chusetts. 



96 Address of Hon. Albert E. PilUhury. 

ADDRESS OF HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURT. 

Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen : — This day belongs to the 
Scotch, and, in point of weather, it is certainly a good Scotch day. 
[Laughter.] 

I shall not expect you, under the circumstances, to remain here to 
listen to anything which I might have said, for it has so turned out 
that we have now to contend against the elements of heaven, and 
even my Scotch-Irish blood is not quite equal to that. [Laughter.] 

I believe this is the first occasion in my life on which I am at lib- 
erty to boast of my ancestry, or to fairly claim to be of the first fam- 
ilies. But it is my good fortune to be descended from John Barnet, 
one of the sixteen original settlers of Londonderry, the mother of 
Windham, and from Robert Dinsmoor, one of the petitioners for the 
charter of Windham, who was appointed, under the charter, to call 
the first town meeting, and at that meeting was elected chairman of 
the first board of selectmen of the town. Fovir generations of my 
ancestors lived and died and are buried in Windham. And my 
mother, a member of the Dinsmoor family (which, I am glad to say, 
still survives here, both in quality and in numbers), has come, to-day, 
from another part of the state to attend this celebration, at an age 
which she wiU not allow to be told, if she can help it — a woman who 
never weighed a hundred pounds in her life, but with so much of her 
Scotch ancestry in her veins that I would back her to-day against 
half a score of people less fortunate in their descent. [Laughter.] 

My friend of the clarion voice which rises above the storm, ex-Sen- 
ator Patterson, has done us who happen to hail from Massachusetts 
the honor to address himself indirectly to us. He thinks, and I agree 
that the claim is not wholly without foundation, that Massachusetts 
has boasted perhaps a little too much of the Pilgrim and Puritan set- 
tlers of New England, forgetting that the Scotch, too, are entitled to 
share the credit of that great enterprise. But there is one circum- 
stance which he has omitted to mention, of which, in justice to our 
commonwealth, I beg leave to remind you. You Windham people 
really belong not to New Hampshire, but to us. If I read our friend 
Morrison's history correctly, the first grant of land in Windham was 
made by the Massachusetts legislature. Windham was a part of 
Massachusetts before it was part of New Hampshire, and if I were 
speaking to-day as a rejiresentative of Massachusetts, and not as a son 
(or grandson) of Windham, I should lay formal claim to you. As it is, 
I assure you that, if you can get the consent of Governor Tuttle and 



Address of Hon. Albert E. PUlshury. 97 

his legislature to come back to us, we shall be very glad to retake you, 
and we will receive you with open arms. [Applause.] I doubt, how- 
ever, if that consent is ever asked or given. On the contrary, instead 
of our retaking you, you are annually in the habit of retaking us. A 
considerable fraction of my neighbors in the city of Boston come wan- 
dering up here every summer, to breathe the mountain air of New 
Hampshire, to ramble over your hills and through your valleys, and to 
disturb your beautiful lakes with the oar and the angle ; and I am glad 
to be assured that the summer boarder is one of the most profitable 
crops ever cultivated in the state. I am sure that it takes less work 
to raise him than any crop known of when I was a boy on a New 
Hampshire farm. [Laughter.] You do not have to plough him, or 
mow him, or lay him down to grass every other year. [Laughter.] 
And you do not have to get up at four o'clock in the morning to milk 
laim, for you can milk him all day, at your leisure. [Renewed laugh- 
ter.] 

I have said nothing, as yet, of what it was my purpose to say, but 
most of that must be passed by. I came here to help celebrate this 
anniversary, but if I should begin on that theme, it would render me 
unable, I fear, to comply with your wholesome five-minute rule. If I 
were to undertake, at this hour, to say anything in behalf of the de- 
scendants of the natives or founders of Windham, for whom you have 
done me the honor to ask me to speak, I shotild say, first, that we re- 
gard the invitation which brings us here to-day as in the natm'e of a 
command. We do not feel at liberty to disregard this duty, which 
every descendant of Windham owes to his ancestry. It is no mere 
sentimental regard that we have for the men of the Scotch or Scotch- 
Irish race, I care not which you caU it, who planted and built up this 
town and community. Their influence lives and moves in the traits 
which we fondly believe we have inherited from them, an influence 
which we feel every day of our lives. If their successors, who have 
gone in all directions over this land, helping to people the mighty val- 
leys of the Mississippi and Missouri, and to plant the seeds of a 
boundless harvest over the prairies of the great West, — if they have 
accomplished anything of success, if they have been able to do any- 
thing of service to their fellow-citizens, or to mankind, they owe much 
of it to the blood in their veins, and to the spirit and example of tlie 
fathers, the founders of Londonderry and Windham; the spirit 
which suffered for the covenant in the time of James, and fought 
through starvation and slaughter behind the walls of Londonderry. 

You have shared this inheritance, and you inherit, also, the soil of 
7 



98 Address of Son. Frederick T. Q-reenhalge. 

this beautiful town, the spot on which they helped to fight the battle 
for civilization, and liberty of conscience, and political liberty ; and I 
can only stay to say to you, my friends of Windham, that I trust 
you may live long in happiness and prosperity to appreciate and enjoy 
it. [Applause.] As one of your guests, let me add, too, a word of 
congratulation upon the public spirit, energy, and enterprise with 
which you have projected this celebration, and carried it to such a 
successful conclusion, an occasion which has been full of interest for 
us, and which you may well remember with pride and pleasure to the 
last day of your lives. [Loud applause.] 

The President : — The next sentiment is " The United States : 
Taken all in all, it is the fairest land on earth : Its government 
the best the ingenuity of man ever framed." I will introduce to you 
the Hon. Frederic T. Greenhalge, of Lowell, Mass., to respond to 
this toast. 

ADDRESS OF HON. FREDERIC T. GREENHALGE. 

My Friends of Windham : — I was not born here, but, at this mo- 
ment, I may declare with perfect truth that I was baptized here. 
[Laughter.] And the baptism was total immersion. [Renewed 
laughter.] I never respected the Scotch- Irish blood so much as when 
I saw this audience behave so nobly in the face of the storm, and 
when I heard Senator Patterson bid the storm defiance, I thought, " It 
is only a game of pitter-patter, let it pour." [Laughter and applause.] 

They tell us about the experiments of a scientific character to make 
a downpour of rain. My fellow-citizen, WUliam H. Anderson, has 
just explained the scientific method. He says it was his speech which 
brought down this terrible torrent of rain upon us at this moment. 
The experiments of Major Dryenfurth were failures. You want a 
Windham man to deliver a five minutes' speech, and aU the rain of 
heaven is upon you in a moment. [Laughter.] 

Now, I come here without the ability to boast of having been born 
here, or having any ancestors who were born here. I feel very much 
like that historical character who was un-named by your orator to-day, 
a fat man in Londonderry. 

I stand here as an outside barbarian, as a horrible example of what 
a man must be who was not born in Windham and has had no ances- 
tors born there. [Laughter.] But, as we might have said of this 
storm, in the epigrammatic spirit of Mr. Cutler's friend, " It might 
have been worse." [Laughter.] So, I may say that, although gjreatly 



Address of Ron. Frederic T. Greenhalge. 99 

interested in the event of my own birth, I had very little control over 
that event. [Laughter.] But, I may say that I have sought to 
make amends, so far as I could, for that perhaps infelicitous event. 
A man has much more to say and to do about marriage than he has 
about birth. I may, therefore, say that I am better than any recreant 
son of Windham who went away and married a girl descended from 
some other place and some other stock. [Laughter.] 

I do not boast here without some right of my admiration of the 
noble qualities of that strong Scotch-Irish stock. Ah, I have proved 
my devotion ; I have proved my liearty approval in the full possession 
of my senses and after the most deliberate judgment. I may say that 
as Waverley, in Scott's novel, was, in anticipation of his marriage 
to the sister of the chief of the clan, permitted to march with the 
clan Mclvar on the way to battle, so I am permitted to march with 
this goodly and noble clan in its triumphal celebration to-day. Arte- 
mus Ward said a man ought to receive great credit because he was 
willing that all his wife's able-bodied relations should render patriotic 
service in the war. [Laughter.] I therefore, my friends of Wind- 
ham, may boast that, in a sort of vicarious way, I myself have had no 
smaU part in all your trials, in all your tribulations, in all your fail- 
ures, and in all your victories. By right of marriage I stand here as 
one of the clan, and, as I hear the splendid rehearsal of the victories 
of that stern, strong breed, I do not much care how my connection is 
brought about with such a noble, strong people. [Applause.] Ah, it 
makes the blood thrill to hear that grand old story of Londonderry ; 
and, as you hear of the spirit which animated the men of that starv- 
ing city, and how they manned the ramparts when death was inside 
and death was outside and the whisper went through the streets, " No 
surrender," I say that from the moment when you left the gates of 
Londonderry, down to to-day, in every stricken field of the Revolu- 
tion, and from Baltimore to Appomattox, the cry of the old London- 
derry breed has ever been, " No surrender, no surrender ! " [Loud 
applause.] 

And what has Windham got to do with the United States of Amer- 
ica? Everything. As Mr. Cutler said, it is not the great cities of 
America which work out the progress and salvation of the Republic. 
It is not the New York of to-day, it is not the Boston of to-day, it 
is not the Lowell of to-day, to which you look for the true type of 
American character now. I tell you, my friends, that it is in the 
country towns ; it is in the back country towns that the highest type 
of individual and national character is to be found to-dav. Look at 



100 Address of Hon. Frederic T. Gireenhalge. 

the splendor of the United States, reaching from ocean to ocean, and 
from the gulf to the lakes ; look at its mighty commercial progress ; 
look at its teeming millions ; look at the millions who are applying for 
admission at its portals to-day. Yet, my friends, the keel of every 
one of the noble vessels of the white squadron was laid in your little 
Beaver brook. Yes, and every one of the sixty-five millions of this 
people drinks in, wittingly or unwittingly, inspiration from the clear 
pure air of Windham and towns like this. It is here where the in- 
spiration came from to build the factories of America. It is here 
upon your hills where the foundations of the great capitol at Wash- 
ington were laid ; and, when I look around and see what has been 
done by these men of Londonderry, Derry, and Windham, I say I 
wonder how you could send so many strong men out and have so 
many strong men left behind. 

Why, if they wanted a great journal established in the metropolis 
of the country, it was Horace Greeley who had to be sent for to do it. 
If it was necessary to lead an expedition to the North Pole and plant 
the banner of the United States on the highest latitude known to man, 
it was Adolphus W. Greely who had to do it. If it was to start man- 
ufactures, build a prosperous city here or there, in Massachusetts or in 
any state, it was the figure of John Nesmith that sprung to the front 
and did the work. [Applause.] If it was necessary to have liberty and 
union, it was another New Hampshire man who was called to do it — 
Benjamin Franklin Butler. [Loud applause.] Why, the Home 
Guard that you have left here has maintained the old house in order. 
Everybody comes back and receives new inspiration from this air — 
mei'chant and lawyer, banker and tradesman. They aU come here to 
renew their inspiration, got of old amongst these silent hiUs ; and I 
tell you, my friends, it is becoming a very important matter in politi- 
cal action and in commercial action, that the true idea of American 
character shall maintain itself. I am not going to enter into any com- 
petition as to whether Massachusetts or New Hampshire or Maine or 
New York did more in this thing or in that. It makes not the slight- 
est difference that the men of Londonderry crossed the line, which 
they did not, to take part in the battle of Bunker Hill. It makes not 
the slightest difference that your strong sons and beautiful daughters 
are working in other states or in other territories. The great fact 
that comes home to me at this moment, speaking under the stars and 
stripes, is, that the work of each and all, Scotch-Irish, English, Welsh, 
or the millions who belong to that race which my friend here has 
described as belonging neither to Jew nor Angle, or to any known 



Address of Hon. J. Cr. Crawford. 101 

race of men, it makes not the slightest difference ; they are all welded 
together in one splendid combination of true American progressive 
character. [Loud applause.] 

Their work and their triumphs are the triumphs of the United 
States just as long as the little, quiet, country town, with its library, 
with its beautiful individuality, with its deep, true notions of culture, 
with its lasting and ineradicable sentiment of religious liberty, — as 
long as those things survive the United States of America, in all its 
power, in all its glory, in all its prosperity, will live forever, a credit 
to the world, a model and an example, a refuge and a bulwark of 
strength to mankind for all generations forever and forever. [Loud 
applause.] 

The President : — Ladies and gentlemen, I now introduce to you 
Hon. John G. Crawford, of Manchester, N. H., a lawyer of Scotch 
descent, who will cheer us with his entertaining speech. 

ADDRESS OF HON. J. G. CRAWFORD. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — I am one of the outsiders 
who have come here without any sentiment from the chairman, — 
neither have I any sentiment to present to you. I have to say, with 
a great deal of regret, that I was not descended from any one who 
lived in Windham, neither did I come to Windham to get a wife. 
[Laughter.] But I am proud to say, as you know by the name, that 
I belong to that same old Scotch stock that settled here. The first 
time I ever heard of Windham, it was not the name of this town, but 
way back in one of the old singing-books where they had the old tune 
of Windham. I understand it was named for this town, and the 
words were appropriate, — " Broad is the road which leads to death, 
and thousands walk therein." [Applause.] 

I have always been anxious to come to Windham and see that road. 
[Laughter.] I was told that it led straight from Windham down into 
Massachusetts. [Laughter.] And thousands have left this town and 
gone down to their death. [Laughter.] Why, sir, when they come 
back up here and undertake to claim credit that Windham once 
belonged to Massachusetts, they do not show the wisdom of their 
fathers when they concluded to separate themselves from that old 
Puritan state and become part and parcel of the Switzerland of 
America. I was born in Massachusetts. My forefathers came over 
with yours from Londonderry, and some of them were engaged in 



102 Address of Hon. J. Gr. Crawford. 

that terrible siege of Londonderry for 105 days. Why, Mr. Chair- 
man, had they had the ladies of Windham to issue provisions, Lon- 
donderry would have held out until to-day. [Loud applause.] 

The old Scotch-Irish never yet were conquered. They fought for 
the freedom of Scotland, and then they carried that freedom into 
England from the shores of northern Ireland. From that they came 
to America, and here you find them always fighting beneath the ban- 
ner of the free. Before the declaration of independence was made, 
when the Continental congress wished to know whether they were to 
be backed up by the American colonists, they sent forth a declaration 
of loyalty to the people that if they would declare the colonies inde- 
pendent they pledged their lives and their fortunes to maintain it. 
That resolution was submitted to every man in New Hampshire over 
twenty-one years of age, and in the town of Windham, with Samuel 
Morison, one of the selectmen, every man but three pledged him- 
self, his life, and his fortune, for the defence of the independence and 
liberty of this country. When came the terrible war, when it was 
attempted to overthrow our government and trail our banner in the 
dust, Windham men, the sons of those old Scotch heroes, rallied 
beneath that old banner which their fathers had given them, and 
marched forth to engage in that terrible war. And you never have 
known, history does not record the fact, of any Scotch-Irish man ever 
being a traitor to liberty. God bless you, when I thought of that 
broad road that led to death I thought that if the programme was 
fully carried out we need not worry about dying in any very imme- 
diate future ; we should have a long life extended to us if we got 
through the whole programme. [Laughter.] 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, you have about concluded your exer- 
cises. The storm is over. The talking or eloquence you have heard, 
notwithstanding the downpour of the rain. I trust that you may all 
be spared to meet here again in 1942, and you will hear the same old 
speeches and the same old stories, but I trust you will not have the 
same old dinner, but one just as good. [Laughter and applause.] 

Thanking you for your attention, being an outsider, lapped on to 
the end of this long programme, let me say, in conclusion, may your 
broad road be turned into a narrow one, and all walk in that to ever- 
lasting life. [Applause.] 

William C Harris, Esq., moved that when the meeting adjourn 
it be to June 9, 1942, and tliis motion was put and carried. 

The band played, and the assemblage united in singing "America." 



Closing Exercises. 103 



CLOSING WORDS. 

The President : — Ladies and gentlemen, in a few moments this 
celebration will be ended. The settlement of this town, the names of 
its founders, the words uttered in their honor and memory, together 
with all the observances of this day, now belong to history. We com- 
mend them to our successors, who will meet June 9, 1942. 

Looking into the future, far as human eye can see, I would say to 
them, — Citizens of Windham of 1942, when you celebrate this natal 
day we who now salute you will in our graves be sleeping. But guard 
well the precious heritage which is commended to your care. Honor 
the memory of the founders of this town, and transmit to your suc- 
cessors unimpaired the good tilings received from your predecessors, 
together with the garnered fruitage of all the years of your passing 
lives. 

In obedience to your vote, I declare this celebration in honor of the 
150th anniversary of the incorporation of Windham closed, and that 
it stands adjourned to the 9th day of June, 1942. So close the pub- 
lic exercises of this day, and the last official words of this celebration 
are spoken. 

The band then struck up some very inspiring music, playing " Rec- 
ollections of the War," and other pieces. 

After the close of the public exercises old friendships were renewed 
and they who had been long separated met in joy and gladness. It 
was a rare day, one of great enjoyment ; one which had been long 
anticipated with emotions of delight, and one wliich those who par- 
ticipated in its exercises will through all the coming years look back 
upon with supremest satisfaction and with joy. 

And how can be better closed this portion of the day's exercises 
than by linking the far-away past of Windham's history with its 
active present; than by calling into our poetical service a lineal 
descendant of our first pastor and clergyman. Rev. William Johnston, 
an early settler in 1742. The following lines were written by his 
great-grandson, Hon. Benjamin L. Baxter, of Tecumseh, Mich., for 
another occasion. He never saw this home of his forefather, but 
these lines are applicable to this celebration : 

" 'Tis said no nobler thought nor kindly word, 
Nor deed of love, which once the heart hath stirred, 
Can fail or die, but, strengthening day by day, 
While those who wrought, in silence pass away, 



104 Resume. 

Moves on from heart to heart, from shore to shore, 
A blessing and a boon forevermore. 
And so, ■while we with deep-felt reverence turn 
Towards that sacred spot which doth inurn 
Our fathers' dust, and consecrate, with tears. 
Those hallowed memories of those earlier years. 
We, too, will make our own, where 'er we rove. 
Their high, heroic faith, and deeds of love. 
And gathering here, around their burial sod, 
Revow their vows to freedom, and to God." 



RESUME. 

In a remarkably well-written article on the celebration, by Prof. 
William S. Harris, o£ Northwood Academy, published in The News, 
Derry, N. H., he says, in relation to the celebration : 

The event so long anticipated by the good people of this old town 
has passed into history. The citizens gave a royal welcome to former 
residents, and friends from abroad, who gladly responded to the invita- 
tion to unite in celebrating the birthday of the town. The town has had 
celebrations and reunions of interest before, but never any like this. 
Eighteen hundred persons gathered from all quarters of the country, to 
honor the past and renew its sacred associations. 

The preparations by the Committee of Arrangements, and other will- 
ing workers, were on a scale such as the occasion demanded, while friends 
of the town, both at home and abroad, contributed liberally of their 
means, so that over $800 was easily raised, to defray expenses. 

The exercises of the day were held at the Center, which, although not 
the first settled part of the town, has been, since 1798, when the old 
church, now the town hall, was erected, the center of the town's interest, 
and the place where its people have gathered for religious and nmnicipal 
purposes. At the side of the town hall, a mammoth tent 130 feet long 
and 60 feet wide was erected, with seats capable of holding 1,200 or more 
people. At one side was the speakers' rostrum, and at the end the stage 
occupied by the band. The upper town hall was used as a reception 
room for the guests as they ari-ived, while in the lower hall tables were 
set for dinner for 140 of the distinguished visitors. 

The decorations were attractive and appropriate. The front of the 
hall bore in large gilt letters and figures the devices, "Welcome," " 1720," 
" 1742," " 1892." The dining-hall was decorated with palms, hydran- 
geas, and other plants and flowers from the greenhouses of Horace P. 
Dinsmoor. The tent and the upper hall were trimmed with flags and 
bunting, and the houses at the Center, and in other parts of the town, 
were also decorated for the occasion, many of the historic spots being 
designated by placards. 



LETTERS. 



Several hundred invitations were sent to individuals in all parts of 
the country, and some to friends across the water. Many whom the 
people of Windham would have gladly welcomed were unable to be 
present. The following include some of the letters received. None 
were publicly read, for lack of time. Letters of regret were also 
received from Mrs. Horace Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; Harry Ar- 
mour, Esq., Edinburgh, Scotland ; Mrs. M. Lizzie Park, Belfast, Me. ; 
Rev. Charles Cutler, Talmadge, Ohio, and many others, not for pub- 
lication. 

THE OLD PARISH OF OUR ANCESTORS IN IRELAND THE LETTER OF 

REV. GILBERT ALEXANDER KENNEDY. 

Aghadowey, county of Londonderry, Ireland, is, historically, most 
intimately connected with the Scotch settlement of Windham and 
Londonderry, New Hampshire. It is six miles from Coleraine, and is 
the parish from which emigrated, in 1718, Rev. James McGregor, and 
a portion of his pastoral charge, to Londonderry and Windham. Mr. 
McGregor was settled over that parish from 1701 to 1718, when he 
resigned, and came to America, and to Londonderry. Before leav- 
ing that place, he preached to his flock from Exodus 33:15 : " If Thy 
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." As he preached to 
his people, our ancestors, in Aghadowey, on the eve of their depar- 
ture from their homes, in 1718, so, on the 23d of April, 1719, he 
spoke to our ancestors, a reunited flock, in this old Londonderry set- 
tlement. On the east side of Beaver pond, or Tsienneto lake, under 
the spreading branches of a great oak, he preached from Isaiah 32:2 : 
" And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind and a covert 
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of 
a great rock in a weary land." The voice of that speaker has become 
silent, and his long-ago listeners no longer hear words falling from 



106 Letter from Rev. Crilhert A. Kenjiedy. 

human lips. The old pastor and the members of his flock in two 
hemispheres are sleeping side by side in the ancient cemetery " on the 
hill," in the east village of Derry, N. H. 

The parish of Aghadowey is an interesting locality, and was first 
visited by the writer in 1884, and again in 1889. The roads are 
hard and solid, the fields surrounded with trees and walls, or hedges of 
scraggy hawthorn which line the highways. Many familiar family 
names are still there, in the old home of our fathers, and kindred 
blood flows in the veins of that people. Considering the intimate 
connection which our ancestors had with that place, and that they 
were members of the Presbyterian chm-ch there, before their coming 
to New Hampshire, words of greeting were sent to pastor and people 
of that church, and a cordial invitation was given Rev. Gilbert Alex- 
ander Kennedy to attend the Windham celebration. To this came 
the following words of greeting from over the ocean : 

Aghadowey Majstse, Blackhill, Coleraine, 

12th May, 1892. 
Dear Mr. Morrison: — I thank you very much for your cordial 
invitation to your anniversary. I should like exceedingly to be with 
you, and give you, by the medium of the living voice, the greetings of 
our ancient church. We feel, naturally, proud of you, and take a 
deep interest in all that concerns you, but I am a young man, lately 
settled, and could not find it easy to afford the time and expense 
required to perform so long a journey. I shall, however, send in time 
for your celebration a letter containing in a small compass the message 
I would have conveyed in person. With kindest regard, 
I remain, yours sincerely, 

Gilbert A. Kennedy. 

To the Citizens of Windham^ New Hampshire^ U. S. A. : — We, 
the members of the Presbyterian church of Aghadowey, county of 
Derry, Ireland, have heard of your intention to celebrate on the 9th 
of June, 1892, the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of your 
town and the 172d year of your settlement as a peoj)le in the far 
West. Being closely united to you by ties of kindred and of faith, we 
desire to assure you of our cordial sympathy with you in your rejoic- 
ing. 

It is now about 250 years since our forefathers and yours were 
driven by the red hand of persecution from their Scottish homes to 



Letter from the Church of Aghadowey. lOT 

that portion of Ulster in which we now live. During the revolution 
of 1688-90 they fought under William III., and were amongst the 
defenders of Derry during its historical siege. For a time the sur- 
vivors enjoyed rest, but in the year 1704 their troubles re-commenced. 
At length the yoke became so galling that in our district some deter- 
mined to surrender home, notwithstanding the blood they had shed in 
its defense. Accordingly, in the year 1718, the Rev. James McGregor, 
minister of this church, with 120 of his families, arose and emi- 
grated to America, settling finally in New Hampshire, and many of 
you are their descendants- 
It is a sad blot on the pages of our history that a loyal, pious, and 
industrious people were thus driven from the land they had bought at 
so high a price, and the saddest element is the fact that the blow was 
struck by the hands of those who had lately been their comrades in 
arms. But " all things work together for good to them that love 
God." The Aghadowey Pilgrim Fathers landed on the friendly shores 
of America, a free people. Their descendants have not only found a 
covert from the storm ; they have shared in the glory of building up 
the gi-eat republic of the West, where peace and contentment reign 
and not only commerce, but religion and the fine arts grow and 
flourish. 

We are truly proud of you, and of our grand old church from 
whence you sprang, amd we are thankful to be able to say that never 
in all her history has she enjoyed a greater measure of prosperity. 

Nearly all of the old disabilities have been removed. Civil and 
religious liberty prevails. Peace reigns within our walls and pros- 
perity within our palaces. When we reflect on the goodness of God 
to us and our kinsmen across the ocean, we may well say in the 
language of the ancient poem, " Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a 
fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The 
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him, but 
his bow abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong 
by the hands of the Almighty God of Jacob, even by the God of thy 
father who shall keep thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee 
with blessings of heaven above. The blessings of thy father have 
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost 
bound of the everlasting hills ; they shall be on the head of Joseph 
and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his 
brethren." 

Brethen, we heartily rejoice in your joy, and unite in wishing you 
prosperity. 



108 Letter from John Carr^ Esq. 

Signed on behalf of the members of Aghadowey Presbyterian 
church. 

Gilbert A. Kjennedy, Minister. 
John Boyd, Clerk of Session. 

Matthew Macauley, Samuel Perry, Torrens Miller, James A. Mul- 
len, Thomas Craig, Robert Wilson, Robert Shirley, Robert Anderson, 
Robert Rankin, other members of the session. 



THE MAYOR OF LONDONDERRY. 

Town Clerk's Office, Guildhall, 
Londonderry, Ireland, 26th May, 1892. 
Honorable Sir : — I have to thank you for your very kind invita- 
tion on behalf of the citizens of Windham, to celebrate the 150th 
annivei'sary of its incorporation, and to express my regret at my 
inability to be present with them on that occasion. 
Believe me, yours very truly, 

J. AcHEsoN MacCullagh. 

Mayor. 
To the Honorable Leonard A. Morrison, 
Windham, New Hampshire, U. S. 



JOHN CARR, ESQ., BOSTON, MASS. 

Boston, Mass., June 7, 1892. 
Gentlemen : — In response to your kind invitation to be present at 
the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Windham, allow me to 
express my very great regret that I cannot join with you in that cele- 
bration, so full of interest to the descendants of those early settlers 
and hardy pioneers. I am detained by other engagements, but my 
heart will be there, where my ancestors, the Dinsmoors, helped to 
build one of the noted towns in the old commonwealth of New Hamp- 
shire, the old Granite state. Hoping you will have a good time and a 
successfid celebration, I remain. 

Respectfully yours, 

John Carr. 
To William C. Harris, Leonard A. Mor- 
rison, William D. Cochran, A. F. 
Campbell, Committee on Invitations. 



Letter from Jonathan L. Noyes, Esq. 109 

THOMAS DINSMOOR, ESQ., SON OF COL. SILAS DINSMOOR, 
THE INDIAN AGENT. 

KiKKSViLLE, Adair Co., Mo., June 6, 1892. 

Hon. Leonabd A. Morrison, 

Canobie Lake, N. H. : 
Dear Sir : — I received your kind invitation to the celebration at 
Windham, and also a Boston paper giving an account of same, for 
which, thanks. I can assure you it would give me great pleasure to 
be with you, but circumstances beyond my control render it impos- 
sible. Hoping you will have a grand success, I remain, 

Yours truly, 

Thomas Dinsmoor. 



JONATHAN L. NOYES, ESQ., FARIBAULT, MINN. 

Minnesota School for the Deat, 
j. l. noyes, supt. 

Faribault, June 6, 1892. 

William C. Harris, Esq., Chairman, 

Windham, Backing ham Co., N. H. : 
Dear Sir :— Yours of the 31st ult. is at hand. I sincerely wish I 
could be with you and your feUow-citizens on the 9th inst., and join in 
the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the 
town of Windham, where I was born, and where the days of ray 
childhood and youth were passed. Many and very precious are the 
recollections I now recall, as I pen these few lines. The town haU, 
formerly the meeting-house, with the box pews, the high box pulpit, 
the horse-sheds in the rear, Robert Bartley's store, the postoffice 
within, the tavern near by, and the church at the fork of the roads, 
the long sermons of the faithful pastor and preacher, Rev. C Cutler, 
the Sabbath school, where Mrs. Hughes so kindly and faithfully 
taught me, and the little foot-stove that I used to carry to Mr. Bart- 
ley's house, to fill with live coals,— the only means of keeping warm 
in those cold, wintry days, the rumpus that arose, when it was pro- 
posed to heat the church with stoves, — those and many other associa- 
tions too numerous to mention pass before my mind, as I think of 
those early days in Windham. It would delight my heart to be with 
you, and take part in the celebration, on the 9th inst. I wish to be 
remembered to any and all of my acquaintances now living, and I 



110 Letter from Rev. John IT. Morison, D. D. 

hope the next 150 years will witness even more and better things 
in Windham than the past ; that many more boys and girls wUl 
come up to do better, greater, and nobler things than their fathers 
and mothers have done. That the town may always be as well uni- 
ted, as prosperous, as intelligent, and as well represented, both at 
home and abroad, in the future as in the past, is the earnest prayer 
and heartfelt desire of 

Yours sincerely, 

J. L. Notes. 

ORLANDO DAVIDSON, ESQ., ELGIN, ILL. 

Elgin, June 4, 1892. 
Wm. C. Harris, Esq., 

Chairman of Committee : 
Dear Sir : — I regret exceedingly that I shall not be able to attend 
the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
incorporation of the town of Windham, N. H. 

I trust you will have a very pleasant and profitable meeting. 
Yours very truly, 

Orlando Davidson. 

REV. JOHN HOPKINS MORISON, D. D., PETERBOROUGH, N. H. 

Peterborough, June 1, 1892. 
To Messrs. William C. Harris, 

Leonard A. Morrison, 
William D. Cochran, 
Alphonso F. Campbell, 

Committee of Invitation : 
Dear Sirs : — It would give me great pleasure to attend the cele- 
bration of the 150th anniversary of Windham, the birthplace of my 
dear mother, and for a time the home of my great-grandfather, and 
also, I believe, of his father and grandfather. I have always, from my 
childhood up, thought of Windham with a filial reverence. I regret 
that, instead of being with you on the 9th inst., I can only join you in 
a silent benediction and a prayer that, as to those who have gone 
before, so even more to those who come after us, God may be present 
with even richer benefactions in the life and character of your people. 
With sincere regard, 

John H. Morison. 



Letter from Daniel M. Park^ Esq. Ill 

HON. JACOB H. GALLINGER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

United States Senate, Washington, D. C, May 19, 1892. 

Dear Mr. Morrison : — Your kind favor of May 16th, inclosing 
invitation to the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the town 
of Windham, is received. It is a matter of much regret to me that I 
cannot be with you on that eventful day. Be assured that I will think 
of you, and trust the occasion may be one of much interest and pleas- 
ure. 

With sincere good wishes, believe me. 

Your friend as always, 

J. H. Gallingek. 
Hon. L. A. Morrison, 
Canobie Lake, N. H. 

DANIEL M. PARK, ESQ., DE SOTO, MO. 

De Soto, Mo., May 30, 1892. 
William C. Harris, 
Leonard A. Morrison, 
William D. Cochran, 
Alphonso F. Campbell, 

Committee on Invitations : 

Dear Sirs : — To all of us come times when the heart's impulses 
and earnest wishes are bound and restrained by circumstances. This 
is one of those times to me. Though never a resident of Windham, 
yet to me the old town is dear. Over it, in boyhood days my father 
roamed ; in its atmosphere, and from its people he imbibed those ster- 
ling qualities and that rugged nature that he carried with him through 
life. He left to me an honored name, and gave to me the best that 
one needs to fit one for life's battle. 

Of my old Scotch-Irish ancestry, I am proud, and there never will 
come a time that I shall not wish to be numbered on the roll when 
old Windham calls a rally of her sons and daughters, and their de- 
scendants. 

These gatherings bring together the scattered fragments of the old 
families, and reunite them in a common loyalty, awakening the old 
ties of kindred blood. I wish I could be with you. I hope to visit 
the old place this summer, but I cannot at this time. May we not, 
however, in spirit, join hands across the distance that separates, and 
together say : " Old Windham, we love and honor thee ;— we love 



112 Letter from President Harrison. 

thy granite rocks, thy pine-clad hills, thy silvery lakes and mossy 
deUs." 

But dearer still, yet closer to our hearts, are the memories of our old 
Scotch-Irish ancestry. Earnest of purpose, fearing God, and ever 
eager to do the right, and the right alone, having that sterling, rugged 
character that ever leaves its impress on ages to come. 

Allow me, then, to express my mother's sincere regrets at her 
inability to be present, as vrell as those for myself. 

Truly yours, 

Daniel M. Park. 



REV. CARROLL CUTLER, D. D., TALLADEGA, ALA. 

Talladega, Ala., April 22, 1892. 
My Dear Mb. Morrison : — Yours of the 18th inst. is received. I 
am sorry to say that I shall not be able to be in Windham in June of 
this year. Our term here does not close until the . 9th. It would be 
some days after that before we could leave home. 

I am glad to hear of the good spirit of the people which leads them 
to observe so important an anniversary. I wish the town had been 
incorporated in August or September. I would like to move to amend 
the record, and put it September 9th, instead of June 9th. I am very 
sorry they made such a mistake 150 years ago. I love old Windham 
and all its old families. May you have a good and glorious time. 

Very truly yours, 

Carroll Cutler. 



PRESIDENT HARRISON, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, June 2, 1892. 

Rev. William E. Westervelt, 

Windham, N. H. : 
My Dear Sir : — The President directs me to acknowledge the re- 
ceipt of your favor of May 31st, and to express to you his thanks for 
the kind invitation to attend the celebration of the 150th anniversary 
of the town of Windham. He regrets that it will be impossible for 
him to be present on that occasion. 

Very truly yours, 

E. W. Halford, 

Private Secretary. 



Letter from Rev. Joseph S. Cogswell. 113 

HON. WM. E. CHANDLER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

United States Senate, Washington, D, C, May 24, 1892. 

Hon. L. a. Morrison, 

Canohie Lake, N. H. : 
My Dear Sir : — Yours of the 16th, enclosing invitation to attend the 
Windham celebration on the 9th of June, is at hand. I very much 
regret that I shall not be able to attend. I can readily see that you 
will have a very interesting ceremonial. 

Yours respectfully, 

Wm. E. Chandler. 



FRANK E. PARK, ESQ., SOUTH BOSTON, MASS. 

South Boston, May 23, 1892. 
L. A. Morrison, Esq. : 

Dear Sir : — Please express to the committee on invitations my 
sincere regret that a previous engagement, involving the participation 
of many, will utterly prevent me from enjoying the enthusiastic fes- 
tivities which I know will prevail on the occasion of the 150th anni- 
versary of the incorporation of the good old town of Windham. 
With many thanks for the remembrance, 
I remain yours truly, 

Frank E. Park. 

REV. JOSEPH S. COGSWELL, STANDISH, ME. 

Standish, Cumberland Co., Maine, Jime 4, 1892. 
Hon. Leonard A. Morrison : 

My Dear Sir : — I have received an invitation to be present at the 
150th anniversary of the incorporation of Windham, New Hampshire. 
It is a painful duty to write to you that I cannot be present with you 
on that occasion of so much historic interest. I am now suffering 
with many aches and pains, and my physician enjoins upon me rest 
and quiet. I shall think of you on that day, and wish to be there, as 
I feel a deep interest in the welfare and prosperity of the excellent 
town of Windham, New Hampshire. 

Very cordially yours, 

Joseph S. Cogswell. 
8 



114 Letter from D. Wallis Morrison, Esq. 

GEORGE S. MORISON, ESQ., CHICAGO, ILL. 

Chicago, May 26, 1892. 
Leonard A. Morrison, Esq., 

Canobie Lake, Windham, N. H. : 
Dear Sir : — I thank you for the invitation to the celebration of 
the 150th anniversary of the town of Windham. As a descendant of 
one of the early settlers, I take it that this invitation comes to me 
from the committee of which you are a member. It is very improb- 
able that I shall be able to attend, though I should be very glad to do 
so. If I cannot go, I wish you would express my thanks to the com- 
mittee for the invitation, with my best wishes for the success of the 
day and my thorough sympathy with the celebration and the objects 
which it conmaemorates. 

Yours truly, 

Geo. S. Morison. 

HON. GEORGE A. MARDEN, LOWELL, MASS. 

June 5, 1892. 
Leonard A. Morrison, Esq. : 

Dear Sir : — I am greatly obliged for the kind invitation to attend 
the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of Windham on the 9th, 
but, as I am to go to New York that evening, I can hardly avail my- 
self of it. But for this, I should be most happy to accept your invi- 
tation. 

Yours truly, 

George A. Marden. 



D. WALLIS MORRISON, ESQ., NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y. 

New York, June 6, 1892. 
William C. Harris, Esq., Chairman: 

Dear Sir : — The committee's invitation to participate in the 
celebration of the 150th anniversary of the settlement of your good 
old town was duly received. I am compelled, with the profoundest 
regret, to forego the great pleasui*e it would afford me to be pres- 
ent on the occasion. The disappointment is all the more keen from 
the fact that, in addition to the enjoyment of the exercises of the day, 
I would have had the pleasure of meeting kindred and friends whom 
I have not seen for many years ; and further, that I am prevented 



Poem hy Mrs. D. W. Morrison. 115 

from showing in person my allegiance to tlie home of my ancestors, 
and joining with those jjresent in honoring their memory and virtues. 

The proposed celebration has aroused Mrs. Morrison's Scottish 
blood. She has inscribed a few lines to kindred and friends, — enclosed 
herewith. Possibly an opj^ortunity may present itself to read them 
to the gathered company. 

Fervently hoping that the occasion will be full of unalloyed pleas- 
ure to all present, I remain 

Affectionately yours, 

D. Wallis Morrison. 



TO KINDRED AND FRIENDS. 

JUNE 9, 1892. 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot ? 

Ah, no, for here we find 
Our hearts, with tender mem'ries, cling 

To days o' auld lang syne. 

Near banks and braes o' " Bonnie Doon," 
Our grandsires worshipped God ; 

And there, in hallowed kirkyard, now. 
Their bones lie 'neath the sod. 

Upon old Scotia's granite hills. 

Their sons breathed Freedom's air ; 

And learned, for liberty and truth. 
Heroic deeds to dare. 

For Scotia, they " with Wallace bled ; " 

For freedom, followed Bruce ; 
And ne'er, till right had won the fight. 

Consented to a truce. 

Their weans were taught, at mother's knee. 

Sweet purity to love ; 
And count a conscience clear within 

All other things above. 

They brought old Scotland's virtues 
Their western homes to grace ; 

The " Holy Book, in honored nook," 
Still knew its welcome place. 



116 Poem hy Mrs. D. W. Morrison. 

'T was here they raised their hands in prayer, 
As their first homes they found ; 

And, by their sons, this sacred spot 
Is counted holy ground. 

With " bonnets " doffed, we gather here, 

Like pilgrims to a shrine, 
To feel what we can ne'er express 

For days o' auld lang syne. 

Aiid here, like doves that, homeward bound, 

To their loved windows fly. 
Our kinsmen, drawn by cords of love. 

With votive off'rings hie. 

Fond mothers to their bosoms press 
Their stalwart sons with pride. 

And then, with open arms, receive 
Each young and trusting bride. 

While here and there, amid the crowd. 

We mark the kindling eye 
Of sweetheart that, to sweetheart dear, 

Breathes out the tender sigh. 

And oft a touch of kindred blood 
In some dear child we trace : 

In one a father's noble brow, 
And here a mother's grace. 

We feel our quick'ning pulses thrill 

As brothers dear we meet ; 
As hand clasps hand, and eye to eye, 

Long scattered friends we greet. 

The loved and lost in days of yore 
Seem hov'ring round us here; 

And, as to them fond mem'ry turns, 
This song ne'er seemed so dear : 

" Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
And never brought to mind ? 
We '11 tak' a cup o' kindness here 
For days o' auld lang syne. 



Letter from Bufus A. Morrison, Esq. 117 

For days o' auld lang syne, my friends, 

For days o' auld lang syne, 
We '11 tak' a cup o' kindness yet 

For days o' auld lang syne." 

Mrs. Mary Whitnky Morrison. 

New Rochelle, New York, June 6, 1892. 



RUFUS A. MORRISON, ESQ., WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Washington, D. C, June 7, 1892. 
William C. Harris, Esq., 

Chairman of Committee of Invitation : 

Dear Sir : — Indulging the hope that the way might be opened by 
which I could attend the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the 
incorporation of Windham, my native town, I deferred to the last 
moment an expression of my deep regret at my not being able to be 
present. Whenever I think of Windham my boyhood life, with all 
its associations of pleasure and disappointment, passes before my mind, 
like a panorama, with its ever changing scenes. 

The first object which memory brings into view is the little red 
school-house standing at the cross roads. It is characteristic of New 
England. At least, in all my travels, I have never seen one outside 
of that section, nor do I think that history accords it a larger habita- 
tion. There I was faithfully instructed in what has been termed, 
either wittily or ignorantly, the three R's — reading, 'riting, and 'rlth- 
metic. To-day I can see that little school-house standing where the 
roadways meet, and I could call by name for many a term the larger 
number of the boys and girls who filled its seats. I well remember 
when I was one of the big boys, and for this reason had the honor of 
sitting in the back seat, that another larger boy came in late one 
morning and whispered to me that gold had been discovered in a 
place called California. It lay right on top of the groimd, and people 
gathered it as they would apples. Many were the schemes we formed 
for obtaining our share of the precious metal. We examined our 
geographies to locate the place and ascertain the best route by which 
it could be reached. Well, California has yielded a vast amount of 
gold, but, could the values of the gold and the little red school-house 
be correctly estimated, the balance would be largely in favor of the 
school-house. 



118 Letter from Rufus A. Morrison, Esq. 

Then there is the old militia drill which took place in front of the 
old meeting-house. It was the height of my ambition to carry an old 
flint-lock gun, and receive fifty cents for the half day's work. Each 
man must appear, fully equipped, with his gun in clean and working 
condition, with a flint in the hammer that would strike fire, and sev- 
eral more equally as good-looking ones in his pocket. The captain, 
with his high military hat and still higher feather, the evolutions of 
the militiamen as they practised the drill to the music of the drum 
and fife, inspired us boys with a patriotism as intense as that of '76. 
But the legislature abolished those drills when I was seventeen years 
of age, and I never received the coveted fifty cents, nor had my name 
placed on the muster rolls of the state. 

The little red school-house and the militia drill have disappeared, 
but town-meeting day is left in all its original simplicity. This was 
one of the play days of the year, and enjoyed alike by the small boys 
and the large boys also who did the voting. This is something pecu- 
liar to New England, the scope and meaning of which, people from 
other states find it difficult to understand. I well remember the pride 
I felt when I deposited my first ballot. I voted for Ichabod Good- 
win for governor, but was not on the winning side, Ralph Metcalf 
being the successful candidate. At that same meeting the question 
of printing the common-school reports came up for decision, and I 
voted in the affirmative. My old Sabbath-school teacher reproach- 
fully looked at me through his spectacles, and said, " Dry reading, 
Rufus, dry reading." I responded that we would try it one year. 
I think those rej^orts have been printed ever since, thereby vindicat- 
ing the young man. 

But the day for Thanksgiving was the richest of all the holidays. 
This day of thanks and feasts has since become national in its charac- 
ter. In my boyhood it was faithfully and religiously observed. In 
the forenoon, service was held in the church, at which the choir 
usually chanted the first psalm and closed the exercises with the 
rendition of some more elaborate anthem. 

This takes us into the house of worship, the place where memory 
delights to linger. Turn back the hands on the dial plate of time one 
third of a century, and I see the old congregation which worshipped 
within her sacred walls. I see and know the occupants of almost 
every pew. The minister, the Sabbath-school superintendent, the 
teachers, the scholars, and the choir, one and all, are indelibly stamped 
upon memory's tablet. I cannot speak too highly of the church choir. 
I have listened to the great singers of our own and foreign lands, but 



Letter from Alhro A. Osgood^ Esq. 119 

never have I been soothed or stirred with sweeter and more elevating^ 
music than that furnished by the church choir of my native town. 
The church in all its appointments is the crown, the glory, and the 
safety of Windham and every other community, May the day be far 
distant when her citizens fail to recognize her importance and the 
duty, nay the greatest privilege, of sustaining her in all her work. 

Sincerely yours, 

RuFus A. Morrison. 



JOHN MORRISON, ESQ., WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Washington, D. C, June 7, 1892. 
William C. Harris, Esq., 

Chairman of the Committee of Invitation : 

Dear Sir: — It is with feelings of regret mingled with pleasure 
that I am obliged to decline an invitation to be present at the 150th 
anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Windham. Regret, 
that I can not be present to renew old friendships, still fresh in mem- 
ory, and greet the sons and daughters since grown up to manliood and 
womanhood to take the places of those who have ripened and gone. 
Pleasure, that I can claim Windham as my native town. 

After an absence of a considerable mmiber of years, I look back 
with just pride upon the sterling, conscientious qualities which seemed 
to predominate in all actions relating to matters of both church and 
state. The memories, the faces, the voices of those we were wont to 
meet and hear in church and in public gatherings, and the words of coun- 
sel, spoken with so much earnestness and faithfulness, though in boy- 
hood days, are as fresh and vivid in memory as though but yesterday. 

With heartiest wishes for a happy and profitable gathering, and 
again expressing regret at my inability to be with you, I remain 

Sincerely yours, 

John Morrison. 

ALBRO A. OSGOOD, ESQ., BOSTON, MASS. 

Boston, June 7, 1892. 
Mr. Alphonso F. Campbell, 

And the Committee on Invitations : 
Gentlemen : — Please accept my thanks for your kind remembrance 
of me, to attend the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of your 
dear old town — dear to me, not only as the birthplace of my mother, 



120 Letter from Ex-Ciov. Charles H. Bell. 

but also for the many pleasant associations connected with the years 
of my childhood, when it was my privilege to call it my home. 

There are times in the histories of men and towns when they are 
called upon to pause from their usual vocations, and look back and 
contemplate the circumstances that have brought them to their pres- 
ent positions. Such, it seems to me, is the position in which you find 
yourselves to-day. And when your historian has read the pages of 
your history for the last 150 years, what has he found ? A history 
of men and women, whose early training in your public schools has 
made them noted for their sterling character, integrity, and deeds of 
generosity, whether at home or abroad. 

Gentlemen of the committee, I again thank you for your courtesy, 
but owing to business engagements, am obliged to decline your kind 
invitation, but you have my best wishes for the success of this anni- 
versary, and I hope the object-lesson taught by the exercises of this 
celebration may ever be a reminder to the coming generations to 
continue the good example set them by their ancestors. I remain, 
Yours very respectfully, 

Albro a. Osgood. 

EX-GOVERNOR CHARLES H. BELL, EXETER, N. H. 

Exeter, N. H., June 8, 1892. 
To the Committee of Arrangements for the Observance of the Wind- 
ham Anniversary : 
Gentlemen: — I regret that it is out of my power to be present at 
your celebration to-morrow, and I send a few pages, to show you how 
much interest I feel in it, though absent in person. 

Yoiu's truly, 

Charles H. Bell. 

At the celebration, twenty-three years ago, of the 150th anniversary 
of the foundation of Londonderry, the mother town, I heard a lady? 
who had listened to the eulogies pronoiuiced upon the Scotch-Irish 
settlers and their descendants, exclaim : "I feel as if I were nobody, 
to-day, because I am not Scotch-Irish ! " 

I am more fortunate than she was, for I can boast my descent from 
that worthy stock, on both sides of the house, my paternal ancestors 
having been among the early settlers of Londonderry, and my mater- 
nal among those of Windham. Indeed, the only English blood in 
my veins came through the marriage of my Windham grandfather 



Letter from Ex-Crov. Charles H. Bell. 121 

with the daughter of the Rev. Christopher Sargent, of Methuen. 
But, he was so excellent a minister, and so worthy a man, that he 
may be accounted almost as good as if he had been Scotch-Irish, too ! 

The town of Windham is fortunate in its historian. A native, a 
descendant of one of the original families, familiar with the traditions 
and associations of the place, he has taken pride and pleasm*e in his 
task. His work contains much that is interesting, and characteristic 
of the people he describes, but hardly anything more characteristic, as 
it seems to me, than the first vote passed by the town, after its organ- 
ization by the election of officers under the charter, March 8, 1741—2. 
It was in these words : " Voted, That the selectmen provide two staves, 
one for the constable and one for the tithing-man, and a town-book." 
Then, having made this apparently meagre preparation for assuming 
the duties and responsibilities of townhood, the meeting was dissolved. 

But, if we analyze this modest resolve of the town, I think we shall 
find that it contains the germs of those principles which have ennobled 
its history in contributing to the country so large a number of men 
of character and influence. In the first place, the very poverty of the 
vote indicates the few and simple wants, the narrow means, and the 
frugality of the people who passed it. They had little money, and 
none to spend unnecessarily. They brought up their families to like 
habits of prudence and economy. In entering upon their municipal 
duties, they evidently considered with care what was absolutely neces- 
sary, and meant to provide nothing beyond that. What, then, did 
they deem the indispensable necessities of their situation ? First, a 
staff for the constable. This was simply a black rod with a brazen 
crown at the top, but it was the symbol of civil authority. The con- 
stable was the collector of the rates and taxes, the conservator of the 
peace, the representative of the law of the land. In furnishing the 
constable's staff the town virtually pledged itself to respect and obe- 
dience of the law, as one of the main pillars of the future prosperity 
which they hoped to enjoy. 

The staff for the tithing-man used to have a heavy knob at one end, 
to rap the hard heads of men and boys, and a fox tail at the other, 
to tickle the faces of drowsy women. One of the chief duties of the 
tithing-man was to awaken sleepers and preserve order and decorum 
during divine service on the Lord's day. He was the representative 
of the spiritual, as the constable was of the civil, authority. When the 
fathers of Windham voted him his badge of office, they bound them- 
selves, in effect, to support the observances of religion, and the public 
worship of God. 



122 Letter from Ux-Gov. Charles H. Bell. 

The town-book was the third article of prime necessity provided 
for in the town's fii'st vote, and it was scarcely inferior in its influence 
upon the peace and harmony of the inhabitants to the articles already 
mentioned. The book was designed to contain the records of town 
meetings, of the proceedings of town officers, and the like. It was 
the common property of all the citizens, open to the inspection of all. 
It was of unimpeachable authority ; whatever appeared on its pages 
admitted of no question. It was a great regulator of official action ; 
a wholesome check upon loose and careless statement, and a final 
umpire in all disputes and differences respecting town affairs. In these 
respects it fuUy justified the foresight and expectation of the voters 
of 1742. 

But, in process of time, the town-book acquired a value which 
the early inhabitants could never have anticipated. It supplied to 
the historian essential and priceless materials for presenting to our 
generation an accurate picture of the doings, the habits, and the ideas 
of the several generations which preceded us. The early inhabitants, 
in their modest estimate of themselves, could not have dreamed that 
they were ever to be of sufficient interest to their successors to be 
made the subjects of a liistory, in all the publicity of print, a century 
after their earthly work was over. When they authorized the pur- 
chase of the town book, they builded even better than they knew ; 
and, for that, they are entitled to oui' special gratitude and acknowl- 
edgment. 

A community which had the wisdom and foresight, 150 years ago, 
to manifest their allegiance to human and divine authority, and to 
recognize the need of making important transactions matters of per- 
manent record, might be expected to thrive, and to raise up successors 
who should be obedient to the laws, and make honest men and good 
citizens. Accordingly, the history of Windham affords numerous 
examples of those reared under such influences, who have been chosen 
from the ranks to become leaders in the great march of progress. 
So many of her sons have distinguished themselves in various callings 
and walks of life, that the list of their names would swell a letter to 
undue length, and it would be invidious to name a part, and keep 
silence respecting others of equal deserts. 

Long may the old town continue true to the principles of its found- 
ers — faithful to the laws, human and divine, — and keep its future 
record worthy of the past. I am. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Charles H. Bell. 



Letter from Samuel M. JVesmith, Esq. 123 

CHARLES H. MILNER, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

Sai^^ Francisco, May 20, 1892. 
To the Committee on Invitations : 

Gentlemen : — I have just received an invitation from your com- 
mittee for June 9th, and although unahle to cross the continent to 
attend, I will be with you in spirit on that day. It is vmnecessary to 
assure you of the great pleasure it would give me to be in Windham 
at any time, and this is particularly true of such an occasion as the 
one at hand, which will call together, not only all of the present pop- 
ulation of the town, but as many of its former residents as are able to 
get there, and will afPord such a favorable opportunity to greet old 
friends, that I am very sorry not to be able to take advantage of it 
and once more meet the many friends that I left there five years ago, 
and although I cannot do that, still I can send you all kindly regards 
and hearty good wishes, and, with the best of anticipations for the 
success of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the incorporation of the good old town of Windham, 

I am. 

Sincerely Yours, 

Charles H. Milnek. 



LETTER OF CONGRATULATION. 
SAMUEL M. NESMITH, ESQ., BOSTON, MASS. 

Boston, June 16, 1892. 
Hon. Leonard A. Morrison, 

Windham, N. H. : 

My Dear Sir : — I write to congratulate you on the success of the 
Windham celebration. I think it was one of the pleasantest occa- 
sions of my life, to meet with the sons and daughters of good old 
Windham in celebrating its 150th anniversary. It is well that occa- 
sions like these arise, to bring together those long separated from rela- 
tives and friends. It was my good fortune to meet with men and women 
who were my schoolmates more than fifty j^ears ago. This was a privi- 
lege which I greatly appreciated. I was much pleased that the gov- 
ernor of our state, with his estimable lady, honored us with their pres- 
ence, and that sitting by his side was a lady guest 101 years of age. 

The address of Hon. James Dinsmoor, a son of Windham, was able 
and scholarly, and I hope soon to see it published. The speeches 



124 Letter from Samuel M. Hesmtth, Esq. 

made by those who took part were of a high order, and reflected 
credit upon themselves, and honor upon the town. 

There was one feature of the celebration which impressed me 
greatly, and of which I desire to write, viz : the charming music of 
the Windham glee club, introduced by yourself as having been organ- 
ized nearly forty years ago. This club was composed of some of the 
best singers of the town, who have continued its organization unbroken 
by death, to the present time. It was a great pleasure to listen to 
these substantial men of Windham singing the songs they sang in 
days long gone by. May their lives long be spared to the good peo- 
ple of their native town. 

The celebration was very enjoyable to all, notwithstanding the rain 
which fell during a portion of the afternoon. The arrangements for 
the celebration were admirably and substantially carried out. Great 
credit is due to yourself and the other members of the committee for 
the organization and completion of this grand celebration. As a son 
of Windham, I take great pride in the enterprise and public spirit of 
the men and women of my native town, and I am satisfied that her 
best interests and welfare are in safe hands to-day. 

With much regard, and with many regrets that, on the day of the 
celebration, I could not say to you in the language of your invitation^ 
"Give me your hand, old friend of youth," 
Sincerely yours, 

Samuel M. Nesmith. 



